CRISIS IN COLOMBIA SHAKES COLOMBIA

Some Politicians Arrested, Linked To Death Squads

BOGOTA, Colombia - The government of President Alvaro Uribe is being
shaken by its most serious political crisis yet, as details emerge
about members of Congress who collaborated with right-wing death
squads to spread terror and exert political control across Colombia's
Caribbean coast.

Two senators, Alvaro Garcma and Jairo Merlano, are in custody, as is a
congressman, Eric Morris, and a former congresswoman, Muriel Benito.
Four local officials have been arrested, and a warrant has been issued
for a former governor, Salvador Arana. All are from the state of
Sucre, where the attorney general's office has been exhuming bodies
from mass graves -- victims of a paramilitary campaign to erode
civilian support for Marxist rebels in Colombia's long conflict.

The investigation, which has revealed how legislators and paramilitary
commanders rigged elections and planned assassinations, has shaken
Colombia's Congress to its core. One powerful senator from Cesar
state, Alvaro Araujo, has warned that if he is targeted in the
investigation, it would taint relatives of his in the government and,
ultimately, the president, whom he has strongly supported.

The arrests and disclosures about the investigation, which is focusing
on at least five more members of Congress, come weeks after
prosecutors leaked a report revealing how paramilitary fighters have
killed hundreds of people, trafficked cocaine to the United States and
sacked government institutions while negotiating a disarmament with
Uribe's government.

Mario Iguaran, the attorney general, said the crisis is worse than the
scandal that tarnished former president Ernesto Samper, who in the
1990s was accused of having used drug money to fund his political campaign.

Uribe's government says it has been tough on the paramilitary forces,
noting that 30,000 fighters have demobilized in three years, a
disarmament larger than that of any leftist rebel group in Latin
American history.