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September 23, 2005
The New Political Class
Here is a translation of María Jimena Duzán's column in Monday's El Tiempo, which provides an excellent early warning, in a few paragraphs, of the imminent rise of a bloc of politicians representing the interests of paramilitaries and drug traffickers.
It is an important reminder that, while the Colombian government celebrates the "demobilization" of paramilitaries and the Bush administration defends the so-called "Justice and Peace" law, the power of paramilitary groups is actually increasing right now in Colombia.
By María Jimena Duzán
El Tiempo (September 19, 2005)
“The unnamable.” That is the term used today to describe the ominous shadow that ex-President Salinas de Gortari has cast over Mexican politics. From the fringes, he keeps trying to influence events, despite having left the way he did: accused of corruption and of having allowed the rise of a new political class closely linked to narcotrafficking and Mafioso practices. Why do I bring this up? Because after seeing the lists of congressional candidates that the pro-Uribe movements have presented for the next legislative elections [in March], one gets the impression that here in Colombia, we have our own “unnamables.”
To understand what I’m referring to, it’s not necessary to be a political scientist. It is enough to have read the “Teléfono Rosa” [gossip/society column] in yesterday’s edition of El Tiempo, which tells us that a group of VIPs from the Caribbean coast region, among them “several congresspeople,” had gone to visit [powerful Northern Bloc paramilitary commander] “Jorge 40,” who may have told them that he wants to involve himself in politics. (Note that this “para” chief hasn’t even demobilized yet.) And who are these VIPs and congresspeople whose names did not get published? Exactly that: they are part of “the unnamables.”
And who, in broad terms, are the unnamables? They are nothing more and nothing less than a new, emerging political class representing the narco-para-politics that are so in vogue right now in local and regional power circles. They are quietly going all over the country carrying out an underground political campaign, imposing their candidates. Yet complaints of this activity do not seem to reach the ears of “The Irreplaceable,” a term that today evokes, without needing to name him, the figure of our president Uribe Vélez.
Their presence is so strong that in some regions, the names of the senators and representatives who will win the next elections are already well known, and among those who feel that they have already lost, there is still hope that Minister [of Interior and Justice] Sabas [Pretelt de la Vega] will dare to make a public statement against the unnamables.
Meanwhile in the Congress, everyone knows their names, but nobody is able to take off their masks or even to single them out, for fear of becoming victims of their methods of persuasion, which don’t exactly resemble those of the Sisters of Charity. On the contrary, for quite some time, and on account of the “Justice and Peace” law and out of a general haste to reconcile with the paramilitaries, these “unnamables” have managed to locate themselves strategically on the various pro-Uribe candidate lists – on those of [prominent legislators] Germán Vargas, Mario Uribe, Juan Manuel Santos, Álvaro Araújo, Luis Alfredo Ramos, Carlos Holguín Sardi and [Carlos] Moreno de Caro – without having passed through any screening. In part, that has been possible because they have arrived on these lists duly “cleaned up,” so that – it can almost be assured – they will be the first to pass any ethical examination that might be imposed on them. This has reached such an extent that, as we have been seeing, many of them – in an act of sharpest cynicism – have given themselves the luxury of criticizing Eleonora Pineda and Rocío Arias [two congresspeople who have openly expressed admiration for paramilitary leaders], for considering that their sincerity regarding the interests they represent – that is, the paramilitaries –to be too crass.
Instead, the “unnamables” don’t allow themselves to be known. They go unnoticed. They don’t take pictures with “Don Berna” or declare themselves to be the number-one fans of Mancuso or “Macaco.” They, the “unnamables,” are the Rasputins of a narco-paramilitary power that is keeping its structures completely intact, despite the innumerable demobilizations and the much-celebrated Justice and Peace Law.
Posted by isacson at September 23, 2005 08:30 AM
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