*Washington, D.C., August 31, 2020 –* Under house arrest in a case linking him to a feared paramilitary bloc, former Colombian president Álvaro Uribe Vélez, perhaps the most important political figure in Colombian history, finds his legacy hanging in the balance. Declassified documents published today reveal new details about his suspected links to narcotraffickers and the paramilitary groups who called him “El Viejo.”
One *memo* <https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/dc.html?doc=7041857-National-Security-Archive-Doc-21-Allegations-of> from 2004 shows that a top Pentagon deputy told Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld that "Uribe almost certainly had dealings with the paramilitaries" during the period at issue in the current case. The document is the first declassified evidence available that concerns about Uribe's presumed paramilitary ties reached the highest levels of the Defense Department. Another highlight is a *cable from 1997* <https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/dc.html?doc=7041845-National-Security-Archive-Doc-09-Antioquia> describing a Colombian congressman's view of the paramilitary situation in eastern Antioquia and "the web of relationships" between then-governor Uribe, "landowners, paramilitaries, and guerrillas.” The congressman said Uribe, himself a rancher, had ties to other landowners in the area who "pay paramilitaries to go after guerrillas.” The records published today include Donald Rumsfeld "snowflakes," Defense Intelligence Agency reports, U.S. Embassy Bogota cables, a presidential decision directive, a CIA report on the Colombian Army's links to paramilitary forces and other materials. The National Security Archive obtained them under the Freedom of Information Act and the Mandatory Declassification Review process. https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/colombia/2020-08-31/friends-el-viejo-declassified-records-detail-suspected-paramilitary-narco-ties-former-colombian <https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/colombia/2020-08-31/friends-el-viejo-declassified-records-detail-suspected-paramilitary-narco-ties-former-colombian?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=a65c0c5d-475d-4fbb-ab00-1c35c2da92ef> -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#1037): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/1037 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/76536615/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES<br />#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.<br />#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.<br />#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/8674936/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
