Family members and political clients of convicted and investigated politicians hope to win a seat in Colombia’s congress after elections in March.
Virtually all the country’s political parties have proposed candidates for the 2018 elections with ties to incarcerated former congressmen, according to the lists released by electoral authorities.
Newspaper El Tiempo counted 23 family members and political clients of jailed or imprisoned electoral barons, not counting the FARC that was in an armed conflict with the State until last year.
La Silla Vacia
Demobilized guerrilla group FARC will enter Congress with 10 lawmakers, almost all with criminal records related to their participation in the armed conflict.
They are not the only ones linked to criminal investigations, however.
Vargas takes the lead
The party of former President German Vargas, Radical Change, has seven congressional candidates with family ties to convicted or investigated former lawmakers, more than any other party.
The U Party of President Juan Manuel Santos has five candidates who are family members from political dynasties that have been disgraced by criminal activity.
El Heraldo
The Liberal Party allowed political associates of three allegedly criminal politicians on its list, the same as Citizens Option.
The Conservative Party proposed two family members of investigated politicians and the Democratic Pole had the grandson of a convicted politician on its list.
“Blood crimes do not exist”
The majority of political parties refused to respond to questions by El Tiempo with the exception of the U Party and Radical Change.
U Party chairman Aurelio Iragorri said “blood crimes do not exist.” A Radical Change spokeperson said that all candidates have passed exams put in place to filter out potentially corrupt or criminal candidates.
Also in previous election cycles, the political parties’ lists contained family members of jailed politicians.
The Democratic Center of former President Alvaro Uribe, which did not propose new political heirs for the upcoming elections, maintained the candidacy of Senator Alfredo Ramos, whose father is accused of ties to illegal armed groups.