by Keith Richmond
ACTIVISTS have attacked former Prime Minister Tony Blair for accepting a well-paid position with the controversial right-wing government of Colombia. He has taken a lucrative job as a consultant to the Colombian foreign ministry’s foreign policy commission despite the fact that the regime has been heavily criticised for its close links with right-wing paramilitary death squads.
Mr Blair and Colombian Prime Minister Alvaro Uribe were both rewarded “for services rendered” with the Presidential Medal of Freedom by George W Bush the week before he made way for Barack Obama.
Jeremy Corbyn, Labour MP for Islington North, said: “Colombia would be better served with an elected minister of their own rather than Tony Blair who has shown remarkable inaction in the Middle East but still finds time to receive a medal from George Bush.”
Liam Craig-Best, director of Justice for Colombia, which campaigns for human and workers’ rights, peace and social justice in the country, said: “It’s not really surprising that President Uribe, a war criminal responsible for thousands of deaths, has chosen to invite his fellow war criminal, Tony Blair, to advise him. If Blair had any decency left, he would have declined this offer to work with the quasi-fascist regime in Bogota.”
The Uribe government has been condemned for its systematic abuses of human rights. Trade unionists are frequently murdered in the country and there is collusion between security forces and paramilitaries which appear to operate with impunity.
