Former Colombian President Andres Pastrana in an open letter criticizes the phenomenon of parapolitics in Colombia’s current administration and says that President Alvaro Uribe has a lot of explaining to do.
Playing on the Uribe-supporting Partido de la U’s slogan “Because going back is not an option”, Pastrana published the open letter titled “Why going back is a good idea.”
The letter is a response to an article published by Uribe’s former presidential adviser and the cousin of slain drug lord Pablo Escobar, Jose Obdulio Gaviria, criticizing Pastrana’s time as president and alleging that he is allied with the FARC.
In the letter Pastrana, Colombia’s president from 1998-2002, claims that a newly-elected Uribe tried to improve his public image by characterising his predecessor as a FARC supporter.
Pastrana says that one day “Uribe will have to explain to the country and the world” why so many members of his administration signed the 2001 Ralito Pact – an agreement between politicians, businessmen and far-right paramilitaries to secure political power – and have been implicated in “parapolitics.”
“He [Uribe] also owes us an explanation as to how Pablo Escobar’s closest consort came to be his [Uribe’s] adviser,” Pastrana continues.
Pastrana adds that if Uribe’s “forced re-election” doesn’t work out, the president “deserves a good vacation.”
The former president finishes by saying that Uribe may one day have to directly address the parapolitics scandals that have rocked his administration by “comparing [Pastrana’s] peace talks with the FARC to the Ralito pact.”