Trinicenter.com - Colombian President accused of heading brutal killer network

By Luis Ernesto, ANNCOL Sydney
www.anncol.com, 08.10.2002

President Alvaro Uribe is the top leader of Colombia's paramilitary death squads, says exiled politician Gustavo Montealegre

The exiled left-wing leader and former member of the Colombian parliament Dr. Gustavo Montealegre Almario is openly accusing President Uribe of being the main man behind the paramilitary killers that are spreading havoc in the South American country.

The attacks against by right-wing death squads against key opposition leaders have escalated after Uribe in August declared "a state of unrest". Even before, Colombia had become infamous as the deadliest country in the world for trade unionists and other social organizers.

"Alvaro Uribe Velez, president of Colombia, is the leader of the paramilitary groups and he is the one directly responsible for the bloodshed, which is a consequence of the open war he declared when he took office," Montealegre told reporters from his exile in Australia last month.

"This war is of everyone against everyone and it will be cruel, bloody and destructive. Lots of innocent lives will fall in the armed confrontations between the governmental military forces, the paramilitary groups and the guerrilla insurgency", Montealegre said.

Dr. Montealegre had to flee Colombia to save his life as he received death threats from paramilitaries who accused him of being a sympathizer of the FARC guerrilla organisation and a traitor to his country.

The former leftist MP and founder of the independent movement "Todo Un Compromiso Social", has asked for political protection from the Australian government.

Montealegre caracterized the current government of Alvaro Uribe Velez and the new congress as "illegitimate" as they have been elected by only 30% of the population entitled to vote.

"The new government was not elected by the majority of Colombians, but by a small, not representative minority and that is without taking into account the electoral fraud", Montealegre said.

Dr. Montealegre went on to denounce those senators and representatives who are financed by the paramilitary groups. Among those denounced are the following:

Carlos Arturo Clavijo, Miguel Alfonso de la Espriella Burgos, German Vargas Lleras, Juan Miguel Lopez Cabrales, Ruben Dario Quintero Villada, Mario Salomon Nader Muskus, Mario Uribe Escobar, Alvaro Araujo Castro, Luis Humberto Gomez Gallo, Alvaro Alfonso Garcia Romero, Leonor Serrano de Camargo, Luis Elmer Arenas Parra, Ciro Ramirez Pinzon, German Hernandez Aguilera, Jaime Ernesto Canal, Mauricio Pinmiento Barrera, Luis Eduardo Vargas, Alfonso Lopez Cosio, Elias Raad Hernandez, Dieb Nicolas Maloof Cuse, Eleonara Pineda Arcia, Zuleta Jattin, Fredy Ignacio Sanchez, Musa Desaire, Reginaldo Montez, Jorge Luis Caballero, Alfonso Antonio Campo, Jose Rosario Gamarra, Jose Joaquin Vives, Sergio Diaz Granados, Jorge Carmelo Perez, Adalberto Jaimes, Rocio Ariuas Hoyos, Manuel Dario Avila, Jorge Luis Feris, among others.

Dr. Montealegre also commented about the "state of unrest" declared by the government of Uribe Velez and he emphasised that these exeptional measures are in fact a classic coup d' état and the beginning of a fascist civil dictatorship in Colombia.

"The president of Colombia is pro-war and he pretends to transform the country into a nation of snitches of the military and the paramilitary groups. He is trying to transform families into informants by offering large amounts of money in dollars so that they denounce their parents, children, siblings and other family members", Montealegre said.

Speaking about the war, he said that: "there will not be winners or losers, but a butchery and bloodshed, yet without the intervention of the US military, the victory of the insurgency would be an irreversible fact".