Colombian statesman opposes dialogue with crime

Colombia's former conservative president Álvaro Uribe Vélez said in Mexico City on 24 October that negotiating with criminals was "useless" and would eventually prove to be "bad business" for democracies, contradicting those in Mexico who have urged its government to end its bloody war on drug cartels and seek a negotiated end to their activities. Uribe was attending an investment conference in the Mexican capital; during his 2002-10 presidency the Colombian state retaliated against guerrilla and criminal violence and security increased in the country, as did criticisms of Uribe's determined use of force. He said "one should not negotiate. This sets a bad example. Negotiating with crime is bad business, it has no long-term utility for a democracy," EFE reported. "You mustn't negotiate with drug-dealing terrorism because this affects principles, and when this happens authority does not last." Crime he added "mutates and will reappear asking for the same conditions of negotiation given before to other groups." The response he suggested was "intelligence and counter-intelligence, human and technical intelligence," but also investment and youth education. Up to 60,000 may have died in Mexico since the government of Felipe Calderón Hinojosa began to wage war on cartels in late 2006. His critics have included his predecessor in office Vicente Fox Quesada. But Uribe called him a "champion" and said he had given the world an example of civic "courage and determination in fighting criminality," unlike unspecified states "whose governments do not fight them, and there is permissiveness, laxity, tolerance."