In Colombia, President Alvaro Uribe is facing new allegations of trying to block several probes of his allies’ ties to right-wing death squads. More than sixty members of Congress are under investigation for using the paramilitaries to intimidate voters. Uribe has proposed removing the court’s investigative authority. In Bogota, Human Rights Watch Americas director Jose Miguel Vivanco accused Uribe of obstructing justice.

Jose Miguel Vivanco: “The government of President Alvaro Uribe is putting at risk the attempts to investigate and judge the crimes committed by paramilitaries and their accomplices in Colombia. One may reach the conclusion that there has been a sort of integral campaign by the government of President Uribe to invalidate and discredit the Supreme Court, and occasionally the prosecutor’s office, when it investigates themes that are sensitive to the government.”