BOGOTA, (Reuters) – Colombia’s agriculture minister and 17 other officials are under investigation over improper handouts of state funds in a scandal that is denting President Alvaro Uribe’s popularity, an investigator said yesterday.
The scandal broke as Uribe’s backers push for a third term for the staunch U.S. ally by amending the constitution, a move his critics say could undermine the Andean country’s democratic institutions.
The public advocate is probing whether Agriculture Minister Andres Fernandez, a former minister and other officials inappropriately approved about $4 million in subsidies for rich families, businessmen and even a local beauty queen.
“We are examining presumed irregularities to determine whether we bring charges against these officials and ex-officials,” said deputy public advocate Marta Castaneda.
The disciplinary probe includes ex-minister Andres Felipe Arias, a close Uribe ally and presidential candidate.
“One thing is to open an investigation, another is to accuse someone. We are ready to cooperate,” Fernandez said.
Opposition leaders say the funds, meant for agricultural development projects, were handed to close Uribe supporters, including those who backed the president’s first reelection in 2006. The government denies any wrongdoing though Uribe has asked recipients to hand back the money.
But Uribe is already feeling the political cost. A poll last month showed his usually armor-plated popularity slipped to 64 percent — his lowest rating since he came to office in 2002 promising to smash the country’s guerrilla insurgency.
The conservative leader remains the country’s most popular president ever thanks, in part, to his tough stance against FARC rebels who once controlled large swaths of Colombia in a four-decade conflict against the state.
Uribe has already brushed off scandals over some of his lawmaker allies getting jailed for ties to militia death squads and investigations into soldiers who murdered civilians and presented them as rebels killed in combat.
With many Colombians still seeing the president as the strong hand Colombia needs, Uribe’s supporters pushed a law though Congress for a referendum on whether to amend the constitution to allow him to stand again in May next year.
Uribe has yet to say whether he will run. But the constitutional court must still approve the referendum proposal early next year and time is running short to organize the ballot on reelection before the presidential vote.
