Investigating Finance Minister
Colombia Attorney General Ends Probe Against Fin Min-Ministry
By Inti Landauro
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
BOGOTA -(Dow Jones)- Colombia's Attorney General ended a probe started in August against Finance Minister Oscar Ivan Zuluaga on alleged ties with paramilitary groups, the Finance Ministry's office said.
The Attorney General's office didn't find any reason to keep investigating Zuluaga, the ministry said in a statement.
No officials from the General Attorney's office were immediately able to confirm the Ministry's report.
In August, Zuluaga had requested the chief prosecutor, the Attorney General and the Supreme Court investigate him after Colombian newsmagazine Semana had reported Zuluaga, when he was senator, had sent and received emails from Ivan Roberto Duque, also known as "Ernesto Baez," one of the country's leading far- right paramilitary warlords.
Created in the 1980s by wealthy ranchers to combat left-wing guerillas, the paramilitary groups later evolved into drug-trafficking mafias that corrupted politics at the high levels.
Zuluaga had said in August that Baez's email address, which was listed under an alias, was included in a mass-mailing list his office managed. The emails sent by Baez were simply confirmations that he had received mass-mailed reports from the then-senator's office, Zuluaga said.
On the other hand, Zuluaga will have to give Wednesday a testimony on the same allegations for a separate investigation carried out by the country's chief prosecutor.
Zuluaga, who was appointed as Finance Minister in March, had already been questioned on ties with paramilitary groups back in April when several local media published photos of Zuluaga with another paramilitary chief taken during a political rally.
Zuluaga denied any wrongdoing.
In the past months, 13 legislators were arrested for alleged links with paramilitary groups while another one is on the run. The majority of them are allies of Colombian president Alvaro Uribe.
Foreign minister Consuelo Araujo was forced to quit earlier this year weeks after her brother, who was senator, was arrested for alleged links to paramilitary groups.
-By Inti Landauro, Dow Jones Newswires; 57-1-600 19 80; colombia@dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires 10-02-071133ET
Copyright (c) 2007 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
