PARA-POLITICAL SCANDAL FUELS URIBE DRIVE FOR

C O N F I D E N T I A L BOGOTA 001390

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/28/2017
TAGS: PREL PREF PGOV CO
SUBJECT: PARA-POLITICAL SCANDAL FUELS URIBE DRIVE FOR
POLITICAL REFORM

REF: BOGOTA 1169 AND PREVIOUS

Classified By: Charge Milton K. Drucker - Reasons 1.4 (b,d)


1. (C) Summary. The Supreme Court ordered the detention of
nine Congressmen for alleged ties to ex-paramilitaries; that
number is expected to grow. One group claims more than 80
legislators could eventually be implicated. The scandal has
sparked calls for political and electoral reform; on February
24, President Uribe called on parties to agree to a series of
reforms, including a transparency pact and the loss of seats
for parties whose members are convicted of a crime. National
election officials are also planning measures to prevent
voter fraud in October local elections. Still, many
political observers tell us that a larger, longer OAS and
international monitoring presence will be needed to ensure
transparency of the October elections. End summary.

Number of Implicated Politicians Growing...
===========================================

2. (C) Colombian institutions, including the Supreme Court,
media, human rights groups and think tanks are investigating
more than a hundred current and former politicians for
alleged ties to paramilitaries. Eight Congressman and the
former-chief of the Administrative Security Department (DAS)
Jose Noguera are in jail, one Congressman is on the run in
Europe, and five have been called to testify in the Supreme
Court--along with two sitting governors (reftel). Several
investigations of former officials and businessmen are
underway, and numerous other politicians have been accused of
para links by the media and human rights groups. Charges
range from meeting with paramilitary leaders, accepting
illegal campaign contributions and vote rigging, to
participating in paramilitary violence. With additional
testimony expected from former-para leaders through the
Justice and Peace process, we expect more politicians to be
implicated. Contacts in Congress tell us 19 more members of
Congress may soon be called to testify in the Supreme Court.
Despite these unsettling revelations, our contacts agree that
the process is a necessary catharsis for Colombia that is
leading towards a strengthening and cleansing of Colombian
institutions.


3. (C) In addition to the Supreme Court and Prosecutor
General Office (Fiscalia) investigations, Colombian think
tank Arco Iris will release a study--partly financed by the
Swedish Development Corp (ASDI)--on March 5 showing voting
irregularities in the 2006 elections of 50 representatives
and 33 senators. Arco Iris investigators told us key
indicators include: unprecedented percentages for leading
candidates in suspect municipalities (30-40 percent norms for
leading candidates, versus totals approaching 90 percent in a
few extreme cases),unusually high numbers of blank or
spoiled ballots (6-7 percent norm, versus 30-40 percent in
suspect races),overly high voter turnout, and the appearance
of new political parties in regions previously controlled by
paramilitaries. ASDI officials told they were not pleased
with the study's methodology, which they said likely
overstates para influence.

...As Are Calls for Political Reform
====================================

4. (U) The para-political scandal has prompted political
reform proposals from nearly all major political parties.
President Uribe used his weekly Community Council meeting on
February 24, to call on political parties to agree to a
series of consensus reforms, including a transparency pact,
to insulate elections from the influence of armed or criminal
groups. Uribe said there would be no delay in the October
local elections. He proposed the following reforms, and
asked all parties to support them:
--First, Coalition Parties would agree to a "Transparency
Pact" publicizing campaign donations and pledging to insulate
candidates from the pressure of armed or criminal groups;
--If a member of Congress is convicted of a crime, that
member's political party would lose a Congressional seat and
have to return all funds received by the member to the
government;
--Parties could risk their standing to run in national
elections if their number of seats were to fall below minimum
legal levels;
--Longer-term, all candidates would have to publish all
campaign contributions, and all votes in Congress would be

public;
--A reexamination of the present national vote for senate
races.


5. (U) National Election Registrar Juan Carlos Galindo,
responsible for election integrity, said on February 25 he
will introduce measures to ensure the integrity of the
October elections. Local registrars in at-risk departments
and municipalities will be randomly rotated leading up to
elections to prevent pre-cooked fraud. National monitors
from Bogota will be sent to these same districts to support
local officials, and security forces will be at the disposal
of election monitoring officials. Finally, Galindo will
institute a process to vet and select diverse sets of local
voting boards. Vice President Francisco Santos followed
Galindo's comments with a call to all party leaders
(coalition and opposition) to meet March 1 to discuss the
October elections. He plans to propose and formulate a
formal vetting process for all candidates in those elections
in order to remove those with ties to armed or criminal
groups.

International Observation
=========================

6. (C) Colombian political leaders are looking to the
international community to provide support to the GoC and
enhanced election monitoring to protect the October elections
against the influence of armed or criminal groups. Liberal
Senator Cecilia Lopez, Arco Iris' Director Valencia, and U
Party President Carlos Garcia told us previous election
monitoring missions by the OAS and others were valuable, but
did not provide the broad and lengthy observation needed to
be to be effective. For October's election, they recommend
that larger teams of OAS and international observers be
deployed to critical regions up to a month in advance of the
elections to backstop the GoC's efforts to prevent fraud and
intimidation leading up to the vote. Valencia added that
despite his call for enhanced international observation, he
believes para influence in the October regional elections
will be less pervasive than in 2003. The demobilization of
para structures, detention of key leaders, and exposure of
para-political links has severely weakened the paras'
capacity to influence the political process.
DRUCKER