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GUEST: John Laun, President of the Colombia Support Network, and an attorney

Colombia’s President Alvaro Uribe was forced to defend his government yesterday over newly revealed clandestine wiretapping of his opponents and journalists. A jailed former top paramilitary commander testified that he met Uribe’s vice president and his defense minister in the 1990s, and police admitted that their agents bugged officials, politicians and journalists. The incident is being dubbed a local “Watergate” and comes on the heels of another scandal over the government’s suspected links with illegal paramilitaries. Thirteen members of Congress and some former politicians have been charged with colluding with paramilitary warlords, who led a massive counterinsurgency campaign dubbed a “War on Drugs” by the government. While Uribe has disarmed 31,000 paramilitaries, most of the commanders imprisoned received short sentences for giving up their arms and confessing to atrocities and massacres. For Uribe the timing couldn’t be worse, as he seeks to persuade U.S. Democrats in Congress to approve a free trade deal and renew a multimillion dollar military aid package for Colombia. Through on-going massive US aid, Uribe’s government has been able to finance the drug war that human rights groups have roundly denounced.

The Colombia Support Network recommends that Americans contact their member of Congress and urge “No” votes on the Colombia Free Trade Agreement, and the renewal of military aid to Colombia.

For more information, visit www.colombiasupport.net, or call 608-257-8753.