Pubdate: Fri, 26 Aug 2005
Source: Guardian, The (UK)
Copyright: 2005 Guardian Newspapers Limited
Contact:  http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardian/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/175
Author: Toby Muse

COCAINE ABUSE RIFE IN COLOMBIA'S CORRIDORS OF POWDER

Colombian senators and congressmen not only snort cocaine, but are able to
buy the drug in the country's Congress building, a senior politician has
claimed.

Edgar Artunduaga, vice-president of the Senate, said that drug dealers had
permanent access to wander the corridors of power.

The accusations were made in a speech drawing attention to lax security on
the premises of Congress. "Coming into this congress we have pastry
salesmen, shoe salesmen, astrologists and dealers of marijuana and cocaine,"
said Senator Artunduaga.

"The worst is that some congressmen are taking these drugs." He said he had
a list of Congress members who were using drugs but that he would not reveal
it until it had been seen by the police.

In Colombia it is legal to possess small amounts of marijuana, cocaine or
heroin for personal usage. "I will denounce the [drug] dealers to
authorities," he said, describing some of them as "middle-ranking
officials".

The country is the world's largest producer of cocaine and since 2000 the
government has received more than $3bn (?1.67bn) in mainly military US aid
to stamp out the illegal drugs trade. The narcotics industry has fuelled a
four-decade civil war, with both leftist rebels and rightwing paramilitaries
funding themselves with drug money.

Yet despite the violence, the security in key government buildings was weak,
said Mr Artunduaga. Metal detectors at the entrance to the Congress building
were often out of order, video cameras frequently ran without film, and of
the four bomb-sniffing dogs allocated to protect the buildings, only one
remained - and he was sick.

Mr Artunduaga's allegations are likely to lower the image of Congress still
further in the eyes of ordinary Colombians. Many see it as a den of
corruption following revelations that both drug traffickers and extreme
rightwing paramilitaries had managed to buy off large numbers of
politicians.

Yesterday some politicians accused Mr Artunduaga of deliberately trying to
smear the reputation of Congress.

"Artunduaga should present evidence and say who are the lawmakers that use
drugs, or resign," said a pro-government deputy, Armando Benedetti.

Senator Antonio Navarro, a leading critic of the conservative president,
Alvaro Uribe, said he was surprised by the allegations. "Speaking for
myself, nobody has offered me any," he said.

Suspected leftist guerrillas massacred at least 14 peasants who were
cultivating crops used to make cocaine at a remote hamlet near Puerto
Valdivia, north-west Colombia, officials said yesterday.

Fighters of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or Farc, killed 13
men and one woman during the attack on Wednesday, Jorge Mejia, the Antioquia
state deputy governor, told Caracol radio. He added that the fieldhands were
probably targets because they had been selling their coca to the rebels'
rightwing paramilitary foes.
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