Juanson World

There's a lot of Colombia news today, in advance of president Alvaro Uribe's visit to sweltering Crawford on Thursday. In the wake of Luis Alberto Moreno's assuming the presidency of the IDB, Uribe has offered the US ambassadorship to former president Andres Pastrana, who happens to be one of Uribe's most vehement critics. According to El Tiempo, Pastrana has all but accepted the appointment, pending a final consultation with his family.

This represents a bold political move by Uribe, who has chosen as his representative in Washington a figure who had been mobilizing his political alies against Uribe since leaving the presidency in 2002. Uribe's campaign in 2002 was based upon a reversal of Pastrana's failed negotiations with guerilla groups, replacing this strategy with a more hard-line approach. Furthermore, Pastrana has criticized Uribe's handling of the ongoing demobilization of paramilitaries and has also opposed Uribe's bid to change the constitution in order to run for reelection.

In effect, Uribe's decision has splintered the Pastranistas, who stand divided between those who support the appointment and those who view it as a move to neutralize the opposition. Critics contend that those who fail to support Uribe are characterized as being anti-patriotic, a phenomenon that underscores the fragility of Colombia's democracy. While it will be interesting to see how Pastrana handles the role of supporting policies that he once criticized, I believe that mobilizing a leader of the opposition to cooperate with Colombia's most important ally can only serve to bolster the peace process. John Kerry would have similarly benefited had John McCain agreed to be his running mate.

In addition, this morning's Washington Post offers a qualified backing of the Justice and Peace Law, affirming that the plan does offer punishments in contrast to peace processes in Chile and South Africa:

U.S. critics contend Mr. Uribe's government can force the paramilitaries to accept tougher terms. In reality what they are calling for is a return to war between the government and the insurgents -- a war that Mr. Uribe has waged more vigorously and effectively than previous Colombian presidents but that remains unwinnable. If the demobilization plan fails, Colombia will have no choice but to return to fighting -- and paramilitary leaders who continue to traffic drugs will once again face extradition to the United States. In the meantime, the United States ought to do what it can to give this crucial initiative by a democratic ally every chance to succeed.

Juxtaposed against this endorsement is the release of a Human Rights Watch report today that lambasts the law, describing it as "smoke and mirrors:"

But Human Rights Watch asserts that the demobilization law provides the legal tools that will protect paramilitary fighters from what they fear most, extradition on drug trafficking charges to the United States. So while the government declares that peace is on the way, the report says, the fighters are focused on laundering drug money and building a Mafia-like organization rooted in corruption and cocaine trafficking.

Finally, Maurice Bishop, a reporter for The Economist, has apologized for describing Shakira as "Colombia's greatest legal export" in an article two weeks ago describing her plan to release a Spanish language album followed by an English release this fall. Bishop sheepishly called it "a reference to a joke that people make."