COLOMBIA: "Body Count" Scandal Haunts Uribe's Candidate

[Derechos]

Analysis by Javier Darío Restrepo

BOGOTÁ, Apr 12, 2010 (IPS) - The front-runner in the polls for Colombia's presidential elections, Juan Manuel Santos, has come under fire from his rivals for his role in the scandal over young civilians killed by the army and passed off as guerrilla casualties, which broke out while he was defence minister.

http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=51006

[rabs]

1. Recommending, despite weaknesses in the article

1. While it is true JMS is the frontrunner, Mockus is stepping on his heels. The reporter does not mention that although that has been the big news in Colombia for the past week.

2. The reporter says JMS is under fire from his "rivals," yet he only mentions one, the Liberal Party's Rafael Pardo.

3. JMS has NOT received the endorsement of Uribe; in fact Uribe is prohibited as president to openly back any of the candidates, according to the constitution. Besides, all of Colombia knows that Uribe wanted his clone, Felipe Arias, to be "his" candidate. Arias (Little Uribito) lost to Noemi Sanin in the primaries last month.

4. The reporters says Colombian is in the "grip of a civil war." The FARC and ELN are estimated by the government to have about or less than 10,000 fighters. In a country of 46,000,000, that can hardly be classified as a "civil war." It is and has always been an armed guerrilla insurgency. Yet the Colombian military has not been able to defeat the guerrillas despite billions of dollars in military aid from Plan Colombia.

5. Apart from points above, any linking of JMS to the "false positives" is good for those who do not know this happened on Santos' watch.

[Judi Lynn]

2. Recommending. Will return to read this later tonight. Thank you.

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