Corruption victorious in Colombian elections http://ourlatinamerica.blogspot.com/2010/03/corruption-victorious-in-colombian.html

The primary for the Conservative Party’s presidential candidate became a two-horse race between former ambassador Noemi Sanin and ex-Agriculture Minister Andres Felipe Arias. With only a few hundred votes separating both hopefuls, electoral officials will hold a recount while Sanin and Arias have each alleged voter fraud.Arias had been involved in one of several scandals that have hampered Uribe in his eight years of presidency. Under Arias’ time as minister over $113 million in “non-repayable, tax-free subsidies” ended up in the hands of wealthy contributors to Uribe. Dubbed by some as "Uribito" (Little Uribe), Arias foolishly claimed that lands originally destined for thousands of displaced families would be better served by politically connected agribusinesses.

Now he is a stone’s throw away from being the presidential candidate of one of Colombia’s main political parties.Perhaps worse were the gains made by numerous politicians linked to the “para-politics” scandal. Despite being created last year by politicos investigated of having strong ties to right-wing paramilitary armies, the National Integration Party won at least eight Senate seats. “PIN's success in several provinces provided strong evidence that right-wing criminal bands associated with drug trafficking continue to plague Colombia's countryside,” according to the AP.

The PIN won more seats than the two main leftist parties- the Greens and the Alternative Democratic Pole- on a day when six of seven former hostages held by the FARC lost their legislative bids.Several jailed politicos convicted of their paramilitary ties even won by using their family members as proxies:With 92.19% of the vote counted the children of “La Gata” (Enilce López) and ex-governor Hugo Aguilar won senate seats for the PIN.For the Liberals one of the winners was the wife of Juan Manuel López Cabrales, convicted to seven years in jail. The cousin of former Senator Juan Carlos Martínez won a seat in the House of Representatives.