President Uribe’s Cousin Under Arrest

The Washington Post reported the arrest of president Alvaro Uribe’s cousin. Ex senator Mario Uribe was arrested for suspected ties to paramilitary groups. He is among a quarter of the Colombian congress caught up in the “parapolitica” scandal for alleged involvement with paramilitary death squads. Mario Uribe had entered the Costa Rican embassy and requested political asylum, which was later denied. This led to his subsequent arrest by Colombian authorities. Meanwhile, according to a story in El Tiempo, defense minister (and the son of El Tiempo’s executive editor) Juan Manuel Santos testified before the Colombian Supreme Court yesterday that Raul Reyes’ laptop implicates many in congress of having ties to the Farc guerrillas, though he did not name anyone. El Tiempo’s story claims Santos “assured” the court that the “farcpolitica” scandal could be larger than the “parapolitica” scandal.