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As New Times reported last week, shady Latin American politicians have a habit of ending up in our neck of the woods.
This time, however, it seems Miami dodged a bullet. Álvaro Uribe, ex-president of Colombia accused of links to paramilitary death squads, has landed a sweet job at Georgetown University in D.C.
Uribe’s new title at the Jesuit institution: “Distinguished Scholar in the Practice of Global Leadership.”
Um, what?
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This, of course, is the man who launched an attack on rebels across the border in Ecuador, nearly starting a war.
Just this Monday, more than 150 scholars from around the U.S. and abroad issued a letter to Georgetown’s president asking him to reconsider Uribe’s appointment.
“Given the human rights scandals associated with Álvaro Uribe’s administration, and the ties between his administration and illegal paramilitary groups, it is disturbing that Georgetown University has chosen to host him this year,” said Lesley Gill, professor of anthropology at Vanderbilt University, in a press release.
On the bright side, this opens the door to UNC hiring Uribe’s arch-nemesis Hugo Chávez as its new mascot. That would give a whole new meaning to “March Madness.”
