VZCZCXYZ0002
PP RUEHWEB

DE RUEHBO #1390/01 0592028
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 282028Z FEB 07
FM AMEMBASSY BOGOTA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 3030
INFO RUEHBR/AMEMBASSY BRASILIA PRIORITY 7420
RUEHCV/AMEMBASSY CARACAS PRIORITY 8744
RUEHPE/AMEMBASSY LIMA PRIORITY 4809
RUEHZP/AMEMBASSY PANAMA PRIORITY 0026
RUEHQT/AMEMBASSY QUITO PRIORITY 5458
RUEAWJA/DEPT OF JUSTICE WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC PRIORITY
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC PRIORITY

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