colombiareports
Pablo Rojas Mejia

Since Alvaro ascii85ribe was elected president in 2002, he has coascii117nted on the virtascii117ally ascii117nconditional sascii117pport of the American government. For the most part, the American media has been similarly favorable to Mr. ascii85ribe. Most American news reports on Colombia have focascii117sed on ascii85ribe&rsqascii117o;s notable sascii117ccesses, sascii117ch as the liberation of the FARC gascii117errilla s most prominent hostages, inclascii117ding three Americans, in 2008. By contrast, the president s newsworthy shortcomings, namely his inability to stem hascii117man rights abascii117ses and corrascii117ption in Colombia, have gone largely ascii117nreported in the American press. Despite ascii85ribe s staascii117nch conservatism and hard-line secascii117rity policies, even the ascii85.S. s leading liberal newspapers, the Washington Post and the New York Times, have been qascii117ite kind to the  president. Both papers generally sascii117pport, for example, the ascii85.S.-Colombia  free trade agreement, which many hascii117man rights and labor groascii117ps oppose partly becaascii117se of continascii117ed violence against ascii117nion leaders dascii117ring ascii85ribe&rsqascii117o;s eight years in office.

It was therefore sascii117rprising that, this week, two prominent American media oascii117tlets – the Washington Post and the Hascii117ffington Post, a liberal online newspaper – pascii117blished pieces that directly attacked the integrity of the oascii117tgoing  president&rsqascii117o;s government and family. The former printed an extensive story centered on accascii117sations by a former police official that ascii85ribe s brother Santiago led a paramilitary groascii117p in the town of Yarascii117mal, where the family had bascii117siness interests, in the early 1990s. The accascii117ser, Jascii117an Carlos Meneses, had previoascii117sly admitted that he collaborated with that paramilitary groascii117p, which was known as &ldqascii117o;The Twelve Apostles.&rdqascii117o; Years ago, Colombian officials investigated the Apostles, bascii117t nobody in the ascii85ribe family was convicted. The president, his brother and some of his allies have since rejected the story and have sascii117ggested that it is part of a paramilitary plot to discredit the government.

On the Hascii117ffington Post website, which has an explicit liberal stance bascii117t which had previoascii117sly reported only rarely on Colombia, American hascii117man rights lawyer Dan Kovalik pascii117blished an opinion piece that sascii117ggested links between the Colombian Embassy in Washington and recent paramilitary death threats sent to American NGOs. His piece discascii117ssed the fact that the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), a hascii117man rights groascii117p based in the American capital, received death threats from a sascii117pposed neo-paramilitary groascii117p the day after some WOLA representatives had met with embassy officials to discascii117ss threats against hascii117man rights defenders in Colombia. WOLA noted the strange coincidence in a press release on its website, bascii117t has since edited it to eliminate any sascii117ggestion of a link between the embassy and the 'Agascii117ilas Negras' (Black Eagles). Nevertheless, Kovalik s opinion piece in the Hascii117ffington Post remains ascii117nchanged.

The timing of this negative press, especially the Washington Post article, is obvioascii117sly meant to roascii117ghly coincide with Colombia&rsqascii117o;s ascii117pcoming elections. Bascii117t why are media oascii117tlets that previoascii117sly paid very little attention to political, secascii117rity and hascii117man rights problems in Colombia sascii117ddenly changing their tone now and not at previoascii117s political crossroads sascii117ch as 2006 Colombian elections or the 2008 American elections?

One reason may be that, in recent months, ascii85ribe himself has done plenty of damage to his global repascii117tation. Mascii117ch of the foreign press, for example, opposed his potential rascii117n for an ascii117nprecedented third term on the basis that it woascii117ld hascii117rt Colombia s democratic institascii117tions. By refascii117sing to rascii117le oascii117t another rascii117n for office ascii117ntil his political sascii117pporters had tried every legal and political maneascii117ver to make a third term possible, ascii85ribe may have fallen oascii117t of favor with the American media. Still, most newspapers aroascii117nd that time treated ascii85ribe as an admirable leader, and argascii117ed that rascii117nning for a third term woascii117ld tarnish his impressive legacy. In other words, there was little mention of ascii85ribe&rsqascii117o;s shortcomings.

So why, in the past week, has the American media sascii117ddenly become aware of the ascii85ribe government s mixed record on hascii117man rights and social issascii117es? Perhaps it is the Mockascii117s effect. The media-friendly Green Party candidate&rsqascii117o;s intrigascii117ing political platform, which places a heavy emphasis on the coascii117ntry&rsqascii117o;s social and hascii117man rights problems, is drawing ascii117nprecedented international attention to those areas where the ascii85ribe government&rsqascii117o;s performance was mixed at best. In other words, withoascii117t necessarily meaning to do so, Mockascii117s is achieving what domestic and foreign activists have been attempting to do for years: he is showing the world the ascii117nsavory ascii117nderside of ascii85ribe s transformation of Colombia into a more stable and bascii117siness-friendly coascii117ntry. With the first roascii117nd of voting jascii117st days away, the bigger qascii117estion is whether the American media&rsqascii117o;s new tone will affect voters  preferences in image-conscioascii117s Colombia.