Weekly Report - 17 May 2007

President Alvaro Uribe must be crying out for a quiet week. Events over the last few days ensured that he will not have one for some time. On 14 May five more legislators (four of them Uribistas) were arrested for their alleged links with the Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (AUC). The government then carried out the biggest purge in the history of the Policí­a Nacional after embarrassing revelations of telephone-tapping. All this set the scene for Salvatore Mancuso, a senior AUC leader, to give testimony under the justice and peace law. This time, unlike his previous four confessions, Mancuso named names, right up to the incumbent Vice-President, Francisco Santos.