[The imprisonment of a Colombian academic says much about the country's "democracy".]

The Case of a University Professor Brings Shame on Colombian “Democracy”

Friday 13th August 2010, by Samuel Grove - www.alborada.net

The Organisation of American States (OAS) recently hailed the ”great transparency and correctness” of Colombia’s presidential elections. The elections, the OAS continued “were the quietest of the last four decades in Colombia” with a significant reduction in “acts of violence compared to what happened in 2002”. The OAS’s praise awkwardly coincides with the publication of evidence showing that violence in Colombia, since 2002, has been widespread and systematic.

This is not to say that the elections were devoid of controversy. The scandal of the “false positives”—the Colombian army's murder of civilians later presented as guerrillas—at one stage threatened to derail the candidacy of the ruling U party. Juan Manuel Santos, Colombia’s new president, was a defence minister under his outgoing U party predecessor Alvaro Uribe when the scandal broke. When the government could no longer ignore the scandal it responded with a mixture of deflection and distraction. Twenty two “corrupt” military personnel were quickly arrested following the revelations while the government continued to emphasise the overall success of their “democratic security” policy. The government PR strategy paid off and Santos was promptly elected, winning 69% of the final round of votes, more than 40 points ahead of his nearest rival. “Security” dominated the elections and it was Santos “who was able to sell himself as the clearest representative" on this issue said Marcela Prieto, director of the Political Science Institute of Colombia.

But what if the issue around which Colombia’s elections revolved turned out to be folly? What if the justification the government provides for its war against the FARC turned out to be based on lies? What if the murder of civilians was not the result of scattered corruption but a logical consequence of government policy? What would that say about the health of Colombia’s democracy?

A university professor Dr Miguel Angel Beltrán Villegas has argued exactly this. In a series of academic papers and articles he highlighted the current responsibility of the Colombian State and army for the level of violence in the country and its historical responsibility for the outbreak of civil war in the first place. “The FARC” he argues “is a historic response to the multiple violences of the State.” Dr Beltrán’s scathing judgement on Colombia’s democracy was lent further justification with the discovery of a mass grave outside a Colombian Army base with 2,000 unidentified bodies.

As if to pre-empt and confirm the ensuing aspersions cast on its legitimacy, the Colombian government’s responded by sending out a warrant for Dr Beltrán’s arrest on charges of “rebellion”. He was detained in Mexico in May 2009, (where he was studying a post-doctorate at the National University of Mexico) and illegally deported back to Colombia. Since then he has been denied due process and has still not been convicted of any crime.

Any possibility that Dr. Beltrán could receive justice were seriously jeopardised in late May 2009 when then President Alvaro Uribe released a statement in the Colombian press describing Dr. Beltrán as “one of the most dangerous terrorists of the FARC”. In contrast Dr Beltrán’s supporters describe him as a "widely respected” academic and the Colombian Association of University Professors are campaigning vigorously for his release. They have been supported by over 600 UK academics who have signed an open letter to the Colombian government demanding his release.

Samuel Grove is an editor of www.alborada.net, a website covering politics, media and culture in Latin America.

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