Colombia’s President Ivan Duque has every reason to fear the elections after the opposition vowed to “overthrow the regime of corruption” with the help of the United Nations.
Opposition candidate Gustavo Petro said on Sunday that he would ask the UN for a commission similar to the “International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala” (CICIG).
This commission investigated corruption in Guatemala until its apparent effectiveness triggered former President Jimmy Morales to put an end to the investigations in 2019.
Colombia’s most feared crime fighter
Petro explicitly mentioned the CICIG’s former president, Ivan Velasquez, whose name alone would strike fear in the hearts of Colombia’s corrupt politicians and businessmen.
Between 2006 and 2012, Velasquez led the Supreme Court’s investigations into the so-called “parapolitics” scandal, which led to the imprisonment of at least 65 congressmen and seven former governors.
The majority of these politicians with ties to the now-defunct paramilitary organization AUC were allies of Duque’s allegedly criminal patron, former President Alvaro Uribe.
Velasquez almost unmasked the AUC’s allies in politics and the private sector after he was appointed district attorney in Medellin, Uribe’s home turf, in 1997.
The former president has been tied to organized crime since his rise in politics under the wing of the Medellin Cartel in the 1970’s.
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Colombia’s mafia-friendly prosecutor
Prosecutor General Francisco Barbosa, one of Duque’s best friends, has gone to lengths to secure impunity for Uribe and other allegedly criminal government allies.
In defiance of court orders, the prosecution failed to prosecute the former president’s alleged fraud and bribery of witnesses that could tie the Uribe family to the formation of a paramilitary group in the 1990’s.
Barbosa also failed to investigate evidence indicating that Duque’s far-right “Democratic Center” party teamed up with drug trafficking organizations from Colombia and Mexico to secure the president’s election in 2018.
Investigations into the reported ties between former Medellin Cartel narco “Memo Fantasma” and the husband of Vice-President Marta Lucia Ramirez have also yet to yield results.
The ties between Colombia’s government and organized crime
Evidence that multiple of Duque’s allies in Congress were elected through fraud has also yet to result in formal criminal charges.
Investigations into the cocaine factories on the estate of Duque’s former ambassador in Uruguay, Fernando Sanclamente, have yet to be presented before a judge.
The only Uribista who ran out of luck was Duque’s 2018 debate chief, Luis Alfredo Ramos, who was sentenced to prison over his ties to drug traffickers and terrorist groups by the Supreme Court.
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The corruption of the state
Retired General Leonardo Barrero, who also tried to enter the Senate with the Uribistas in 2018, has yet to be arrested despite a flurry of drug trafficking and corruption allegations.
Barrero is one of a growing number of allegedly corrupt former security chiefs who were never taken to court.
The corruption of the National Army has arguably made the security forces the most powerful players in Colombia’s cocaine exports.
Meanwhile, evidence indicated that corrupt elements within the National Police are deeply involved in urban organized crime rackets.
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The mafia’s opposition to democracy
Petro canceled rallies in Colombia’s coffee region earlier this month due to claims that a regional organized crime group was planning to assassinate him.
The opposition candidate survived an alleged assassination attempt by the local mafia from Cucuta, a city on the border with Venezuela, in 2018.
Petro’s fierce anti-corruption advocacy has also made him the main opponent of “clans,” regional organizations that use organized crime revenue to buy votes and political goodwill.
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The power of these clans were weakened by the parapolitics investigations that revealed that some were even using terrorism or assassinated political rivals in order to gain political power.
Many of these clans supported Duque’s 2018 campaign and now support former Medellin Mayor Federico Gutierrez, whose former security secretary maintained ties to organized crime group “La Oficina de Envigado.”