| BBC prints this day after Obama and McCain bring up Columbia at the debate. |
Human Rights Watch (HRW) has accused the Colombian government of blocking investigations into alleged links between paramilitaries and politicians.
| HRW was curiously absent when average people were getting gunned down by FARC ... |
Thousands of demobilised fighters have given evidence implicating more than 60 of President Alvaro Uribe's supporters, including his cousin Mario.
HRW said Mr Uribe's government was "sabotaging" the investigation - a claim he has denied. The HRW report, entitled "Breaking the Grip? Obstacles to Justice for Paramilitary Mafias in Colombia," claims that Mr Uribe's administration was "jeopardising efforts to secure justice".
"Colombia's justice institutions have made enormous progress in investigating paramilitaries and their powerful friends," said Jose Miguel Vivanco, one of the authors. "But the Uribe administration keeps taking steps that could sabotage these investigations."
| 'Could'? That doesn't mean that they 'are' doing so. HRW is already weaseling the report. |
HRW said such measures included making baseless accusations against members of the Supreme Court, which is running the investigation, and blocking efforts to reform Congress to eliminate paramilitary influence.
The group also said the extradition to the US of 14 paramilitary leaders in May this year had interrupted ongoing investigations.
| But it facilitated other investigations into the drug trade. |
Mr Uribe has denied any obstruction and said his government had "combated the paramilitaries with more force, effectiveness and decisiveness than any other in Colombia's history".
Several dozen Congressmen, all of them supporters of Mr Uribe, are already being investigated over alleged links with paramilitaries. They were named in the testimonies of demobilised fighters who agreed to confess in exchange for reduced jail terms.
| So Hector the Weasel decided name names to get a reduced sentence ... |
Mr Vivanco said international pressure was crucial to ensure that efforts made by prosecutors were not "squandered". "The burden is now on the Uribe administration and Colombia's institutions of justice to ensure that paramilitaries, as well as their accomplices, are held accountable," he said.
The BBC's Jeremy McDermott in Colombia says the failure so far to uncover the true nature of the paramilitary activity could be one of the reasons behind a recent growth in such groups. A new generation of paramilitary groups dedicated to drugs trafficking has sprung up, with up to 8,000 members, our correspondent says. |