COLOMBIA: The government of Colombia's president Alvaro Uribe is being shaken by its most serious political crisis yet, as details emerge about members of congress who collaborated with right-wing death squads to spread terror and exert political control across the country's Caribbean coast.
Two senators, Alvaro Garcma and Jairo Merlano, are in custody, as is a congressman, Eric Morris, and a former congresswoman, Muriel Benito. Four local officials have been arrested, and a warrant has been issued for a former governor, Salvador Arana. All are from the state of Sucre, where the attorney general's office has been exhuming bodies from mass graves victims of a paramilitary campaign to erode civilian support for Marxist rebels in Colombia's long conflict. The inquiry, which has revealed how lawmakers and paramilitary commanders rigged elections and planned assassinations, has shaken Colombia's congress to its core.
One powerful senator from Cesar state, Alvaro Araujo, has warned that if he is targeted in the investigation, it would taint relatives of his in the government and, ultimately, the president, whom he has strongly supported.
The arrests and disclosures about the investigation, which is focusing on at least five more members of congress, come weeks after prosecutors leaked a report revealing how paramilitary fighters have killed hundreds of people, trafficked cocaine to the US and sacked government institutions while negotiating a disarmament with Mr Uribe's government. Mario Iguaran, the attorney general, said the crisis is worse than the scandal that tarnished former president Ernesto Samper, who in the 1990s was accused of having used drug money to fund his political campaign. The United States withdrew his visa in response.
Mr Uribe's government says it has been tough on the paramilitary forces, noting that 30,000 fighters have demobilised in three years, a disarmament larger than that of any left-wing rebel group in Latin American history.
But the latest scandal has raised questions about how effective the disarmament has been and whether the government is truly committed to dismantling an organisation that has infiltrated town halls, hospitals and even the government's intelligence agency, the DAS.
Just this week, the inspector general's office levelled disciplinary charges against the former head of the DAS, Jorge Noguera, for having given classified information about the agency's operations to paramilitary forces.
"In plain public view and with evidence, the tip of the iceberg has appeared, but it is just the tip of the iceberg," said Gustavo Petro, a senator who has revealed details of paramilitary infiltration of government institutions.