that Uribe, because to hope for more without proof would be a monstrous disappointment.
He had a lot of time to "study war" as Uribe's Defense Minister throughout Uribe's two presidential terms, during which time inhuman events took place, many with the military acting in tandum with paramilitary units of the AUC, as testified in court from both death squad members and military. F'r instance, massacres featuring unarmed, unsuspecting villages as the guests of honor.
It would be impossible to know from outside how much of this could be laid at the feet of the Defense Minister, clearly. Uribe's connections with narcotraffickers, paras go back for ages, decades before he became the President of Colombia. As late as 1991, the U.S. Department of Defense entered information into the record in a report regarding both Uribe and his father, and indicated that Uribe was known as a friend of Pablo Escobar. Incidentally, the woman who toiled as the mistress of Pablo Escobar wrote in her book that Pablo Escobar was wildly overjoyed that Alvaro Uribe had managed to get the necessary legislation in order for private people or organizations to be able to build their own private airstrips on their own property, which she said intensively aided Escobar in his ability to move cocaine, etc.
Here's a post from great DU'er Say_What regarding the report:
Say_What Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-25-07 09:23 PM
Original message
A Harsh Light On Associate 82--A declassified Pentagon report claims Uribe once worked for Pablo Esc
Source: MSNBC
<clips>
In September 1991 the U.S. Department of Defense compiled a list of individuals believed to be associated with Colombia's notorious Medellin drug cartel. There are 106 names on the newly declassified intelligence document, and they read like a who's who of thugs, assassins, midlevel traffickers and crooked attorneys. The cartel's ruthless kingpin, Pablo Escobar, was prominent on the list, of course, along with the former Panamanian dictator Gen. Manuel Antonio Noriega. But the real head turner is item No. 82, which reads as follows: "Alvaro Uribe Velez—a Colombian politician and senator dedicated to collaboration with the Medellin cartel at high government levels. Uribe was linked to a business involved in narcotics activities in the U.S.... Uribe has worked for the Medellin cartel and is a close personal friend of Pablo Escobar Gaviria."
The Pentagon report portrays Uribe in a light sharply at variance with his current image as Washington's main ally in the U.S.-financed war on drugs in South America. But in those days, he was among dozens of Colombian pols who openly opposed the extradition of their drug-trafficking countrymen. Uribe has since changed his views—and, in fact, his government has sent scores of drug traffickers to the United States for prosecution since he took office.
More info. from DU'er Make7:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x503314
Since Uribe already had relationships with these clowns decades before gaining the Presidential office, it certainly seems logical that his own ideas probably formed so much of what his military did, and it would be difficult to guess how much input or control can be attributed to Santos.
As soon as Uribe saw Santos dared to make choices, decisions as President without consulting him first, he immediately became a tiny wild man, fighting wildly, with nothing held in reserve, day after day, against this man for daring to depart from his, Alvaro Uribe's imperial wishes.
That, in itself, seems like a reason to believe there's something good in Santos, after all.
Uribe has ALL the contacts, clearly. He has BIG, BIG friends in high, powerful places in the U.S. right-wing, military, god knows what, people who could get him appointed in the twinkling of an eye to positions at Georgetown, and Harvard for just the right, convenient amount of time AT just the right, convenient time when things were getting hot for him in Colombia during the investigations of various right-wing associates and family members of Uribe's, and Uribe himself.
Uribe is a miraculous little Teflon person, with a lot of luck, and intensely powerful friends with access to monstrous weapons and materials.
Santos, in light of his courage, deserves some respect for continuing with the Peace Talks and not bending to Uribe's all out war on him.
Beyond that, I could never guess. He does, as you say, remain ambiguous.
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