Colombia mayor charged with ties to rightist gangs

BOGOTA - A Colombian mayor has landed himself in jail on charges that he used the bullet as well as the ballot box to stake his claim to political power.

Ex-leftist rebel Teodoro Manuel Diaz, mayor of the northwest town of Apartado in the war-torn banana-growing region of Uraba since 1998, was arrested last week on allegations of setting up right-wing militias, a spokesman for the Chief Prosecutor's Office said on Thursday.

Such swings across the political spectrum are not uncommon in Colombia's long-running civil conflict that has claimed more than 35,000 lives in the past 10 years.

Combatants in guerrilla, paramilitary and government ranks often fight as much to protect personal interests as for ideological reasons.

Diaz was a member of the Maoist People's Liberation Army (EPL) until he laid down his arms under a government peace deal in 1990. He then became a prominent leader of the Hope, Peace and Liberty (EPL) political movement, dominated by his former rebels and banana workers.

But investigators allege Diaz also returned to strong-arm tactics between 1991 and 1995, setting up so-called ''People's Commandos.'' Those groups, made up of former EPL fighters, went on to form the backbone of an ultra-right death squad in the region.

The death squad, known as the Peasant Self-Defence Groups of Cordoba and Uraba (ACCU), fought a 10-year war to drive Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrillas and the leftist Patriotic Union Party (UP) out of Uraba.

The spokesman for the Chief Prosecutor's Department said one of Apartado's town councilors, Jairo Suarez, was also arrested earlier this month on charges of setting up ''People's Commandos.''

Both Diaz and Suarez have held office since January 1998 and were due to leave their posts at the end of this year. They are being held without bail.

President Andres Pastrana vowed on Wednesday to crack down on Colombia's death squads after a wave of massacres in the north.