sances.info

"I break with a justice system that is absolutely rotten," Giraldo said. "But I am not saying that I will stop denouncing crimes."

But his allies in Congress have blocked a bill for expanded payments. Uribe has estimated that legislation’s price tag at $40 billion, which he says Colombia can ill afford, especially given the global recession.

Gustavo Gallón, director of the Colombian Commission of Jurists, which investigates rights abuses and has been critical of the government, learned that 30 agents were assigned to follow him, his two daughters, his parents and siblings. "This boggles the imagination," Gallón said. "They are following your children. What is the reason for that?"

PRESIDENT OBAMA and President Alvaro Uribe of Colombia will hold their first official meeting next week in Washington. While a pending free trade agreement will probably claim the media attention, Obama has the opportunity to address Uribe’s troubling human rights record directly and make clear that any agreement between the two nations will hinge on a shared commitment to upholding human rights. Will he take this opportunity?

BOGOTA, Colombia, May 16 -- For weeks after the news broke, Colombians knew only that the secret police had spied on Supreme Court judges, opposition politicians, activists and journalists. Suspicions swirled that the orders for the wiretapping, as well as general surveillance, had come from the presidential palace.

But outside the 400-year-old walls, away from the cobblestones and charm of the old city, is a swath of slums so miserable that public health officials compare conditions there to life in sub-Saharan Africa. Unlike those who live in and visit Cartagena' affluent heart, most of the residents of the ramshackle barrios are black. Drug trafficking is rife, children are malnourished and preventable diseases are common.

Despite record aerial eradication, coca cultivation rose by 15 percent during Plan Colombia’s 2000-2006 run, the report said.

The scandal has focused scrutiny on Mr. Uribe’s government and its top ally, the United States, which is responsible for vetting Colombian military units for human rights abuses before they can receive American aid. The United States provides Colombia with about $500 million a year in assistance to fight rebels and drug trafficking.

“If we are receiving aid and vetting from a government in Washington that validates torture, then what kind of results can one expect?” asked Liliana Uribe, a lawyer in Medellín who represents victims’ families.

BOGOTA, Colombia, Oct. 16 -- Far from pressing to uncover the truth, President Álvaro Uribe's U.S.-backed government has hindered investigations into links between paramilitary groups and the country's political establishment, a leading human rights group said in a report released Thursday.