Colombia free of paramilitarism says president

Colombian president Alvaro Uribe claimed that his administration had "overcome paramilitarism'' in the country. In remarks during a televised speech commemorating Colombian Independence Day on Friday, Uribe asserted that:

“Today paramilitarism no longer exists because combat against leftist rebels is now, in practice, the exclusive work of our democratic institutions.”

Apparently Uribe forgot to mention of the expanding “para-politics” scandal that has implicated political and military allies to right-wing paramilitary groups. Senator Mario Uribe (the president’s cousin), the current Vice President and Defense Minister, and the brother of an ex-foreign minister are just a few of those being investigated for their links to paramilitary groups.

President Uribe is in the U.S. trying to drum up support for a bilateral free trade agreement. Over the weekend he was in New York and New Jersey where he attended several Colombian Independence Day festivals and also denounced the involvement of several labor union members in a leftist conference held in Ecuador.

Image- NDTV.com

Sources (English)- Guardian UK, The Latin Americanist, NorthJersey.com

Sources (Spanish)- RCN, Caracol