Thaindian News

Bogota, Jan 29 (IANS/EFE) The Colombian government’s plan to recruit college students as military informers has evoked criticism across the country.
President Alvaro Uribe’s decision to turn university students in the crime-ridden northwestern city of Medellin into army informers was an act of desperation and a sign that the violence was out of control, presidential candidate of the opposition Liberal Party Rafael Pardo said.

Pardo, a former defence minister, said that making a specific group part of the security forces’ intelligence network means “putting it at risk, making it less effective and also provoking retaliation”.

Independent presidential hopeful and former Medellin mayor Sergio Fajardo said the plan is “a monumental error that runs counter to what education should be all about”.

Guillermo Baquero, president of the Colombian Association of University Students, said that he did not believe the measure will reduce crime or get to the root of the problem.

Medellin’s mayor Alonso Salazar told Caracol Radio that he has asked the government for a larger police force, but that his administration will never rely on a network of civilian informants.

In statements cited by the web edition of Bogota daily El Tiempo, Salazar urged Uribe to “reconsider” the idea.

Medellin based army unit commander General Alberto Jose Mejia, however, told reporters that the decision to enlist a thousand university students in Medellin as army informers “is not about militarising” young people.

Alvaro Leyva, who has been seeking the Conservative Party’s presidential nomination for 2010, said the measure would have to be implemented “very carefully” because there is the risk of “taking advantage of the inexperience of youth, proceeding without much thought and involving people that aren’t currently wrapped up in the conflict”.

“Turning students into ‘tattletales’, I don’t know if that’s the most dignified thing for a student; I’d respect them and not turn them into accusers,” Conservative Party presidential hopeful Jose Galat said.

Uribe said Tuesday in Medellin that roughly 1,000 university students would form part of a network of informants and receive payment of about $50 monthly in return.

Authorities say there were 2,178 homicides in Medellin in 2009, a 108 percent increase over the previous year.

–IANS/EFE

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