Reply #4: Arrest moves Colombian scandal closer to Uribe

[Robbien]

BOGOTA, COLOMBIA — Authorities on Thursday arrested the former head of Colombia's top police agency in connection with a widening paramilitary scandal that is moving closer to President Alvaro Uribe.

The arrest of Jorge Noguera, who directed the Department of Administrative Security, or DAS, follows the resignation Monday of Foreign Minister Maria Consuelo Araujo. Araujo's brother is among five congressmen, all staunch Uribe supporters, who have been arrested on charges of having links to illegal right-wing militias.

Noguera, 43, was a close associate of the president. Noguera organized Uribe's 2002 presidential campaign in Colombia's coastal zone.

. . .

Although he had little government experience, Noguera was named head of the powerful investigative entity after Uribe took office. Informants accused Noguera of doing the bidding of right-wing paramilitary commanders while heading the agency, a post roughly equivalent to FBI director in the United States. One informant said Noguera ordered him to destroy the criminal files of some alleged paramilitary leaders.

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-fg-colombia23feb23,1,3783018.story?coll=la-news-a_section

HuffingtonPost has a great post up today on this called

U.S. "Free Trade": Death, Drugs and Despair in Colombia