Rule of Law Wins - For Once

Guatemalan Pres. Otto Pérez in court.

Guatemalan President Otto Pérez Molina, an ex-military officer allegedly linked to atrocities during the country's vicious civil war, tolerated protests against him after evidence appeared tieing him to a corruption scandal. And, when the public and political pressure against him became overwhelming, Pérez Molina resigned and went to jail, where he will be tried like a common criminal.

Guatemala's remarkable turn of events is a victory for civil society and its power to hold leaders accountable. And so is the investigation into a huge kickback scheme in Brazil's Petrobras state oil company, which now has that nation's president on the ropes.

Nevertheless, across Latin America, consolidation of power by many presidents is endangering systems of checks and balances, making leaders invulnerable to accusations of corruption and giving them authoritarian powers.

The most glaring example is Venezuela, whose pseudosocialist government just carried out a show

Imprisoned Venezuelan opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez.

trial which sentenced opposition leader Leopold Lopez to almost 14 years in prison, even tho human rights defenders say prosecutors offered no real evidence.

'The sentence of 13 years and 9 months in prison against a Venezuelan opposition leader with no credible evidence against him shows the complete lack of judicial independence and impartiality in Venezuela,' wrote Amnesty International.

Reeling from a shrinking economy, the world's highest inflation rate and soaring crime, while facing parliamentary elections in December, Venezuelan Pres. Nicolas Maduro is trying to muzzle the press and imprison opponents.

Maduro has also tried to scapegoat Colombian immigrants as the cause of his nation's profound problems, deporting hundreds of Colombians in brutal conditions.

Meanwhile, other, more competent Latin leaders have used their success to consolidate power. Ecuadorian Pres. Rafael Correa has used economic pressure, lawsuits and anti-free speech laws to intimidate and close critical media.

In Bolivia, Pres. Evo Morales controls more than two-thirds of Congress and plans to use this power to pass a bill enabling him to run for a fourth-consecutive term.

And in Nicaragua the Supreme Court ruled that Pres. Daniel Ortega, a one-time leftist guerrilla leader, could run for a third consecutive term even tho the Constitution clearly states that neither the sitting president nor someone who has held that office for two terms can run again.

Sadly, it's inconceivable that in any of these nations, the president would be prosecuted for corruption, no matter how shameless. And, most likely, the media would not even report such corruption.

Ernesto Samper survided
a huge scandal.

And how about Colombia? The history isn't encouraging.

President Ernesto Samper's (1994-8), was the last presidency threatened by scandal. Despite
overwhelming evidence of drug cartel money in his campaign, he pleaded ignorance and survived a political trial in Congress and finished out his term. (The U.S. appeared to consider him guilty and took away his visa.)  Samper now heads the leftist Unasur organization of Latin American nations.

Scandal couldn't touch Alvaro Uribe.

The 2002-8 terms of right-wing Pres. Alvaro Uribe were marked by military success against Colombia's guerrillas, but also horrendous human rights violations, including massacres of peasants by paramilitaries and the False Positives killings. Uribe's government also employed the DAS, Colombia's FBI, to spy on opponents, including journalists and even Supreme Court justices. Some called the scandal worse than Watergate. Uribe has been repeatedly accused of links to paramilitary death squads, but evidence has never stuck, and he is now in Congress, where he leads the opposition to Pres. Santos. (On the other hand, several high-ranking members of his administration are on trial or in prison for corruption and other crimes.)

Colombia will be better off it never has to test whether its legal system is strong enough to take down a president.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

The Female Solution?

Where are they off to? DEA agents on the move. (Image: YouTube screen grab)

United States Drug Enforcement Agency guys reportedly attended sex parties sponsored by Colombian narcotraffickers.

In early 2013, Honduras' ambassador in Bogotá resigned after revelations of sex parties with prostitutes inside the embassy.

A few years ago, US Secret Service agents started an international scandal by hiring prostitutes in Cartagena during the run-up to an international summit meeting in Cartagena.

The key factors here? Machismo and testosterone.

A New York Daily News cover about the
Cartagena Secret Service scandal.

Hiring prostitutes and attending sex parties may or may not be wrong, depending on your moral code.
But they certainly do generate scandal, and they can place agents in compromising situations and make them vulnerable to blackmail and extortion.

Fortunately, there is an easy solution to these male-generated problems: Hire only female agents and officials.

Women are of course not immune to sexual improprieties. But the endless parade of prominent men apologizing and resigning for involving their private parts with the wrong people suggests to me that there's something uniquely male behind this.

On the other hand, removing men from all responsible positions in government, business and even science might be difficult. And the U.S. government's solution: imposing a zero tolerance policy for paying for sex, might also be unrealistic, considering how ingrained the sex-and-partying culture appears to be.

Or, perhaps U.S. government bureaucrats believes they can re-engineer human nature and stop thos macho guys, far from wives and girlfriends, from noticing exotic women?

Perhaps a more realistic policy would be to accept commercial sex as a realistic part of male behavior, legalize and destigmatize it, so that it ceases to become a potential source of blackmail and extortion. That might, at the same time, also improve working conditions for the prostitutes involved as well as making it possible to ensure that those working women are not also on the tab of spies, narcos or terrorists.

And, while they're in the business of decriminalizing behavior, why not also consider decriminalizing drugs, as well. That would eliminate the whole need for those corruptible DEA agents in the first place.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Don't Like the Law? Then Leave!

Ex-Controlora Sandra Morelli, now in Italy, is the most
recent Colombian high official to flee to escape
legal charges.

As the controlora, her job was to investigate and evaluate the performance of other government entities, including whether they were obeying the law.

As minister of agriculture, his job included implementing a law providing subsidies to small landowners.

As director of the DAS, Colombia's FBI, her job was to investigate and expose lawbreakers.

As peace commissioner, his job included negotiating the demobilization of outlaw guerrilla fighters and bringing them within the law.

However, when each of these high officials faced legal charges themselves, they decided that Colombian law shouldn't apply to them, and fled the country.

Ex-agriculture minister Andres Felipe Arias is
seeking asylum in the U.S.

Controlora Sandra Morelli won respect for exposing corrupt contracts while in office. However, soon after finishing her term, she faced accusations herself, including alleged fraud involving the purchase of a government building. But Morelli alleged that Colombia's Attorney General Eduardo Montealegre was biased against her, and declared that she would not receive a fair trial here, and fled to Italy, where she also has citizenship.

María del Pilar Hurtado, director of the Administrative Security Department (DAS) under Pres.
Alvaro Uribe, allegedly helped Uribe spy on his political opponents, including Supreme Court magistrates and reporters. After the scandal, which many compared to Watergate, the DAS was liquidated and replaced. Hurtado fled to Panama, where she is fighting extradition. And Uribe was recently elected to Congress.

Ex-peace commissioner Luis Carlos Restrepo fled to
Canada, where he recently obtained asylum.

Andrés Felipe Arias, minister of agriculture under Pres. Uribe, was popularly seen as Uribe's heir and a potential presidential candidate. But Arias allegedly used a government subsidy program called Agro Ingreso Seguro (Secure Agricultural Income) to reward wealthy political supporters. Arias apparently did not enrich himself personally using the program, but nevertheless was sentenced to 17 years in prison. Arias fled with his family to the United States, where he is seeking political asylum. Arias claims that his 17-year sentence was disproportionate to any wrongdoing.

Ex-DAS director Maria del Pilar Hurtado fled to Panama,
where she is fighting extradition.

A respected author and conservative political leader, Luis Carlos Restrepo was the Uribe administration's peace commissioner. In 2006, he oversaw the demobilization of 62 supposed guerrillas members of the Cacica la Gaitana Front. However, it later became known that most of the supposed guerrillas were homeless and unemployed men who had been paid 500,000 pesos each to pose as guerrilla fighters and 'demobilize' for the media. Even tho at least one ex-guerrilla testified that he had tricked Restrepo into believing that the men were guerrillas, courts ordered Restrepo arrested for the false demobilization. In January 2012, Restrepo fled to the U.S. and then to Canada, where he recently received asylum.

All four officials claim that Colombia's justice system is unfair or biased. That may be true - but
which nation's system is not to some degree. And, by living in a nation, and particularly by serving in government, a person implicitly agrees to play by their nation's rules. Picking and choosing when to respect the legal system is fundamentally unfair, since this option is not open to poor people.

You can't - or shouldn't be able - to pick and choose your laws.

The pattern of Colombian high officials fleeing the country to escape prosecution is also extremely damaging to Colombian society, since it creates a privileged class above the law and then everybody else, who have to submit themselves to an inefficient, often corrupt legal system. It thus degrades respect for the law and makes a mockery of the legal system which these once high officials once were supposed to uphold.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Where, Oh Where, Has Andrés Arias Gone?

Where is he now? Andrés Felipe Arias with Alvaro Uribe,
pushing ethanol back in happier days.

Just a few years ago, he looked like the political heir of then-Pres. Alvaro Uribe. But that was before it was revealed that Andrés Felipe Arias, Uribe's minister of agriculture, had overseen an agricultural subsidies program whose beneficiaries included the wealthy and famous.

A month ago, while out of prison and awaiting a judge's ruling, Arias slipped his government-appointed bodyguard and disappeared with his family. He reportedly traveled to the United States, but his own lawyers say they can't contact him. Meanwhile, neighbors have seen vehicles moving furniture out of Arias's apartment.

Yet Arias's lawyers insist that he will return do his prison term, whose length has not yet been set. Journalists seem to doubt that.

Ex-DAS director María del Pilar Hurtado, now in Panama,
doesn't want to come home.

Arias is not the only ex-Uribe official spending time outside the reach of Colombia courts.

María del Pilar Hurtado, who headed the DAS secret police under Uribe is residing in Panama, where she's fighting extradition charges resulting from an Uribe-era spying scandal.

A second Uribe-era DAS director, Jorge Noguera, was sentenced in 2011 to a 25-year prison term for using the secret police agency to assist right-wing paramilitary groups.

At least four other Uribe officials are awaiting court rulings on charges related to various scandals.

And Uribe himself faces multiple investigations involving alleged connections to paramilitary groups.

Ex-DAS director Jorge Noguera, convicted
for collaborating with paramilitaries.

Despite all of this dirt, Uribe remains extremely powerful, and will soon enter the Senate, where he will enjoy a degree of legal immunity. Uribe's hand-picked candidate, Óscar Iván Zuluaga, almost won the presidency in recent elections.

To Uribe's credit - sort of - he has remained unwaveringly loyal to his ex-officials. But when will Uribe's almost magical spell on many Colombians' mentality fall away before these many crimes and scandals?

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Colombia's Nixon?

He even looks a bit like Nixon:Conservative presidential candidate Oscar Iván Zuluaga.

He worked with a shadowy hacker to play dirty tricks on political opponents. He apparently tried to sabotage the peace talks going on in Havana, Cuba. And he lied about it, repeatedly and in different ways.

Yet this man, Centro Democratico presidential candidate Óscar Iván Zuluaga, still believes himself qualified to be president.

Zuluaga, a relative unknown ex-treasury minister with little charisma, had shown surprising strength in recent polls, but still didn't stand much chance of defeating Pres. Santos if both made it to the second round of presidential elections. With the scandal generated by videos showing him scheming with a now-imprisoned computer hacker, Zuluaga might not make it into the second round - or there might be no second round at all if his supporters abandon him for Santos.

We should be grateful to the Spanish computer geek who recorded and leaked the now-infamous meeting. If not for him, Zuluaga might possibly have become president, setting Colombia up for years of illegal government monitoring, dirty politics and scandals which would have made the huge scandals during the administration of Pres. Alvaro Uribe, Zuluaga's political mentor, look trifling.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Like Sons Like Father: The Uribe Polemic Continues

During his presidency, Alvaro Uribe generated either hate or adherence: For some, he was Colombia's savior, for others a warmongering ally of right-wing death squads. And, since he left office, Uribe has continued generating polemic as leader of the opposition to his succesor Juan Manuel Santos.

So, perhaps it's not surprising that Uribe's sons Tomás y Jerónimo Uribe Moreno are generating their own controversies.

At first glance, it's hard to understand why. The young men operate some admirable businesses: Artesanias de Colombia, which markets traditional handicrafts, and EcoEficiencia, which recycles and disposes of hazardous wastes, as well as providing other environmental services. They've also been involved in real estate and the family ranch.

Still, suspicions of favoritism have never gone away. During their father's eight years in power, some of those businesses grew tremendously.

But entrepeneurship deserves its rewards. So perhaps it's just the young men's style - or the reputation inherited from their hard-driving father - or political resentment - that's generated conflict.

Still, questions keep coming up. There were the links to a pyramid scheme. And when Bogotá was reorganizing its waste disposal system a few years ago, the traditional recyclers - poor people who pick thru the garbage on the sidewalk for whatever they can use or sell - charged the Uribe brothers with trying to monopolize the city's recycling industry and eliminate the independent recyclers' way of life.

The Uribes backed off of that recycling plan, altho they continue in the industry.

In 2009 the brothers were accused of receiving favors after a property they purchased outside of Bogotá was rezoned as a free trade area. Soon after that, someone created a Facebook group named 'I commit myself to kill Jerónimo Alberto Uribe, son of Alvaro Uribe.' The group's profile page said they wanted to show the Uribes the 'horror of war.' A young arts student turned out to be behind the Facebook group. He was absolved of any crime.

The brothers were back in the news this April after investigative journalists revealed that they had opened a bank account in a the British Virgin Islands, considered a tax paradise. The Uribes responded that a business partner had decided to open the account there in order to sell handicrafts and that the business had failed.

And last week El Tiempo published a long report about allegations that the brothers had engaged in tax fraud. In today's paper, the Uribes reject the charges and claim that their clients lied.

Throughout the young Uribes' business career has run the suspicion that they have benefited from their name and father's influence. In December 2010, ex-Pres. Uribe and journalist Daniel Coronell clashed on Twitter after Coronell reported that Tomás Uribe had met with a Brazilian construction company seeking contracts in Colombia. Coronell said that, however innocent Tomás Uribe might be, such a meeting didn't look good. The ex-president responded furiously and Coronell asked him to "Explain the fortune of your children."

Thru it all, president and now ex-president Uribe has given no ground in defense of his sons' honor. In 2008, he affirmed "my sons aren't corrupt. They aren't influence traffickers before the state...My sons have chosen to be men of work, honest and serious."

The family also argues that the younger Uribes have no contracts with the state.

It's probably inevitable that the ambitous sons of such a powerful, polarizing figure as ex-Pres. Uribe will attract controversy.

But it's also true that the sons of a president should walk very carefully, and, at a minimum, they've failed at that.
By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Out Of The Palace and Into Prison

Pres. Alvaro Uribe's administration ended last year with tremendous popularity, thanks to improved security and a vigorous economy.

But if Uribe's top officials expected to turn that success into flourishing political careers, some were very mistaken.

Bernardo Moreno faces the music.

This weekend, Uribe's one-time chief of staff Bernardo Moreno was jailed by a judge in relation to the chuzados scandal, in which the Administrative Security Department, or DAS, wiretapped journalists, judges and even other politicians.

Andrés Felipe Arias in trouble.

And, less than a week ago, Uribe's agriculture minister and one-time apparent heir apparent Andrés Felipe Arias was jailed for a scandal in an agricultural subsidy scheme called 'Agro Ingreso Seguro' intended to help struggling peasants. Instead, some of the payments allegedly went to the rich and powerful, including an ex-beauty queen, prominent political families and narcotraffickers.

Both have yet to be tried and deny the accusations.

Last November, Maria de Pilar Hurtado, the head of the DAS under Uribe obtained asylum in Panama after Colombian law enforcement moved against her for the wiretapping scandal.

Uribe has stuck by his ex-officials. He helped Hurtado obtain asylum in Panama, and he visited ex-ag minister Arias in prison. Uribe accused one judge involved of bias and said that Moreno's arrest was "unacceptable" and that Moreno was only defending his honor.

Uribe has had his own legal troubles. He's been ordered to testify in a United States trial about alleged ties between the Drummond coal company's Colombian operations and killings by right-wing paramilitaries. Uribe himself is not accused in the case.

Yet another scandal, the falsos positivos, in which military units kidnapped young men, killed them and reported them as guerrillas, has sent some military officers to prison but has not touched Uribe personally.

Uribe was extremely popular during his presidency, and there's talk of him running for another term or for mayor of Bogotá. And these ongoing scandals involving his administration don't appear to have hurt his support much: he's still got 60% support in polls.

Like many scandals, the responses to these one show that Colombia's judiciary does act.

Related: Our of Uribe's Palace and into Prison: the Sequel.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

How to Get Respect

"We demand respect." Municipal government workers march on Plaza Bolívar: 

City government employees marched on Plaza Bolívar today, demanding respect amongst a huge scandal involving the express bus expansion project which has the mayor suspended from office and facing probable trial and his senator brother in prison.

The scandal has dirtied the image of the left-wing Polo Democratico Party just as the campaign for mayor gets going.

In today's protest, the public workers demanded that they all not be be tarred with the same brush. But public employees will have a hard time changing their image by taking time off of work to march across Plaza Bolívar. Rather, they might consider cracking down and actually getting things done.

The Transmilenio and many other public works projects drag on and on. This is not all the fault of public employees, but they could crack the whip to get things done.

In many cases, public services are rotten. These past weeks, we and the neighbors have called multiple times to get street lights repaired and the telephone, service provided by publicly-owned ETB, repaired. The light's finally on, but the telephone's still overwhelmed by static.

It's obvious that nobody bothers to enforce laws on air and water pollution. Plans to clean up the fetid Bogotá River never seem to advance.

Get a few things done, and Bogotá residents' respect for government employees will rise. 

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

The Endless Road to the Airport

Transmilenio Work on El Dorado Ave., which leads to the airport. Work is right on track - give or take a year or two. 

As tho it's new to anybody, Bogotá officials have announced that the Transmilenio lines on Carrera 10 and El Dorado Ave. will not be operating in time for the Under-20 World Cup, or in time for Christmas, but for early 2012.

Shoveling away at 7th Ave. and 26th St. 

So, the many thousands of visitors who visit Bogotá for Colombia's biggest-ever sporting event will find the main avenue from the airport to downtown not only under construction, but closed at 7th Ave.

And this is the same city government which promised us that the TM lines would be working last year, instead of next year, .

Sure, they did run into unexpected geological problems, and it did rain a lot this year. However, delays and mismanagement this monumental probably mean that something more than incompetence was behind it.

At least, authorities appear to be responding. Mayor Samuel Moreno's been susended from office and his brother Ivan, a senator, is in jail, as are the owners of Nule Group, which orginally had part of the TM contract. Suspended Mayor Moreno may soon follow them.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

A Weird, Weird Web Around Amazon Oil

It's like something from a spy novel, involving a man nicknamed Dr. Death, the Vietnam War, jungle oil reserves and possible ties to cocaine smuggling and the CIA.

The tale begins with MontcoEnergy LC, a previously unknown oil company, which was assigned five petroleum exploration regions last year by Colombia's National Hydrocarbon Agency (ANH). However, in a statement this May, the ANH said, mysteriously, that it had reversed its decision "for reasons anticipated in the law." The statement added that "the relevant authorities have been apprised of this situation."

A Colombian oil well. 

Good for the ANH. But perhaps they should have known this from the start. After all, Montco apparently does not even have a working website. So, can they really be trusted with a chunk of Colombia's biodiversity and energy resources?

Then the story becomes even more dubious. La Silla Vacia reports that a Canadian oil company  investigated Montco and found that the company's records weren't in order. And that ANH officials discovered that Montco's supposed offices in Texas and Canada were just post office boxes and that an oil well which Montco claimed to own in the small west African nation of Gabon apparently does not exist. A Gabonese official says that his signature on documents provided by Montco is forged.

Now the tale turns sinister: Also according to La Silla Vacia, two of Montco's three owners are linked, thru another oil company they own, to a narcotrafficker named Chupeta. El Tiempo reports other contacts between Montco and shady characters.

Weirdest of all, Montco hasn't given up on getting oil exploration rights. And the guy representing the company in Colombia is David Scott Weekly, who earned the nickname Dr. Death by carrying out special operations in southeast Asia during the Vietnam War.

Weekly has also been linked to the CIA in news reports, altho the CIA denies this.

What's behind all of this? An unknown company with dubious associations offers millions of dollars for Colombian oil prospecting rights and hires a Dr. Death to lobby for it.

It also so happens that lots of Colombian cocaine passes thru West Africa on its way to Europe, altho apparently little thru Gabon.

All of which suggests where these millions of dollars might have come from.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Bogotá's Corruption Carrousel

Samuel and Ivan have seen better days. 

The other shoe dropped today as Bogotá Mayor Samuel Moreno was suspended from office because of allegations of corruption and mismanagement in public works projects. The mayor's younger brother Ivan, a senator, was arrested the other day because of the same scandal, so the two might soon be repeating those great days of childhood by sharing a bedroom. 

And yesterday authorities arrested many government officials for an alleged corruption scheme in public health services - functionaries created bills for non-existed services and pocketed the money.

The bad part is that officials are committing fraud, believing that they can get away with it. The positive part is that some of them are actually getting caught.

Mayor Moreno was unapologetic. In a speech today he boasted about his administration's accomplishments. Certainly, Moreno's carried forward public works which needed to be done - but they should have been done cleanly and efficiently.

Despite everything, this was the scene this afternoon near the National University. Evidently, Bogotá's young male population prioritized other interests, like the Real Madrid-Barcelona game.

It reminded me of my first crazy days in Caracas, Venezuela, when I was working as a journalist. I'd moved to the city just two few weeks before, had a malfunctioning laptop, no home internet connection and no friends in the city when a coup overthrew President Hugo Chavez.

Most of the city went into lockdown and I raced about desperately in search of an open internet cafe from which to file the biggest stories of my journalistic career. Finally, I found one and began typing furiously while on the television on the wall the coup leaders, a group of business and military men, were announcing the country's fate. Meanwhile, all around me, kids, oblivious and uninterested in their nation's fate, were playing video games and sending text messages.

An employee tapped my shoulder. "Would you mind changing machines?" he asked me. "Then you can continue chatting."

Chatting??!!! I thought. "I'm recording history!"

After about 48 hours, the coup fell apart and Chavez was swept back into power generating about 72 hours of frantic journalism. On the third day, I was back in the internet cafe racing against deadline to file another story when an employee tapped me on the shoulder again. "I have to ask you to leave," he said sternly.

"Why????!!!" I asked, in desperation.

I hadn't bathed in four days, and was driving out their game-playing customers. Fortunately, I found a less sensitive internet place across the street.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours