Colombia's mass graves and electoral fraud

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Mr. Bush will be the first U.S. President to visit Bogota since John F. Kennedy, and only in Colombia will he find an unconditional friend in President Alvaro Uribe, whom he has praised as an ally and granted billions of dollars in military aid. But on the eve of the visit, Mr. Bush's best friend is becoming his biggest embarrassment. Mr. Uribe leads a country mired in corruption, violence, and drugs — the source of 90 per cent of the cocaine in the U.S. — and where critics of the government receive death threats and drug barons and death squad leaders win amnesty.

Long-standing problems

Mr. Uribe didn't invent Colombia's problems — it has endured 40 years of civil war and narcotics flourished long before he became president in 2002. But President Uribe, who changed the constitution to permit his own re-election last year, has devised a "peace" plan that has opened the door to a future incorporation of amnestied narco-paramilitary groups into Colombian politics, who have close ties with Mr. Uribe's own political machine.

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