|
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) - Judicial authorities on Monday ordered the arrest of 20 politicians and business leaders, including five congressmen, on criminal conspiracy charges for signing a 2001 pact with illegal right-wing militias.
All are accused of benefiting — at the ballot box or otherwise — from close ties to the paramilitaries, which committed contemporary Colombia's must brutal massacres and stole land from tens of thousands of peasants.
It was the latest shock wave in a scandal that has badly marred President Alvaro Uribe's credibility because nearly all those implicated are his political allies, although the second-term president enjoys broad popularity for making Colombia's cities safer.
|