Colombian president faces internal strife ahead of visit

Colombia's police chief yesterday claimed left-wing guerrillas were threatening to sabotage President George Bush's upcoming visit. In reality, the most unsettling thing for Mr Bush may be the embarrassment of visiting a close political ally at a time when Bogota is embroiled in a series of political scandals.

The current problems for Colombia's president, Alvaro Uribe, began with the surrender last year of a Salvatore Mancuso, the former leader of a notorious right-wing paramilitary group, the Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (AUC).

The paramilitaries initially sprang up as a defence against the left-wing guerrilla movement, Farc, and were funded by landowners and members of the wealthy business elite. However, the AUC and its off-shoots quickly took over large areas of the drugs trade themselves and were responsible for the deaths of hundreds of civilians.

Mr Uribe brokered a peace deal with the paramilitaries during his first term that guaranteed leaders of the AUC would face no more than eight years in jail. This includes Mr Mancuso, who admitted to personally carrying out more than 300 murders.

But problems began to deepen when Mr Mancuso produced a copy of the so-called "Ralito Agreement" signed by leaders of the AUC, eleven members of the Colombian Congress, two provincial governors and five city mayors.

As a result, in mid February the country's Supreme Court ordered the arrest of six congressmen, including Alvaro Araújo, the brother of the foreign minister, over alleged links to the AUC. Shortly afterwards, Foreign Minister Maria Consuelo Araújo resigned, adding to suspicions that the AUC links reached to the highest levels of government.

Kevin Turner, a Colombia expert at Nottingham University, said: "If a connection is made between the US Government's support and the paramilitary organisations or their political representatives, then the US could be perceived to be indirectly supporting a terrorist organisation."

Mr Uribe has ruled out peace talks with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or Farc. For years Farc was involved in an ongoing struggle with state-backed militias both for territorial control and profits from the drugs trade.

It continues to have urban guerrilla units in the country's capital and concerns have been raised that they may launch a high profile attempt on the US president during his visit.

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