BOGOTA (AFP) — President Alvaro Uribe on Saturday said his dealings with politicians linked to paramilitary groups were done "openly and in public," but charged that some opposition leaders maintained secret, illegal relations with leftist rebels.
"The relations the president had with politicians have always been carried out openly and in public, compared to the clandestine relations (Alternative Democratic Pole Party, or PDA) members have with the guerrillas," Uribe said in a statement.
The president was reacting to a video on the Pole party's website showing Uribe in the 2001 election campaign meeting with some political leaders who later admitted having links to right-wing paramilitary groups.
In his statement, Uribe said his election campaign was supported by two of the people he is seen with on the video -- a community leader and a journalist running for Congress -- but that both were known to be law abiding citizens at the time.
Uribe also boasted that thanks to his Democratic Security policy, "all paramilitary groups have been dismantled" in Colombia.
Uribe in the past has linked PDA members and other opposition leaders to leftist rebel groups such as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), without giving any proof.
The paramilitary United Self Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), which was formed to counter FARC and other leftist rebel insurgencies, was disbanded in April 2006 when most of its 32,000 fighters surrendered their weapons.
Around 50 AUC commanders are either on trial or imprisoned, along with 14 lawmakers who were convicted of being connected to the paramilitary group, all of whom belonged to Uribe's political circle.
At least 30 other politicans are under investigation on suspicion of AUC ties, in what has become known in Colombia as "the para-politics scandal."
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