Paramilitaries back Colombian candidate, rival says

April 5, 2002 Posted: 6:08 PM EST (2308 GMT)

(Reuters) -- Far-right paramilitary gunmen are coercing Colombians to vote for front-runner Alvaro Uribe in the presidential election next month, his nearest rival said on Friday, without accusing Uribe of being in league with the gunmen.

"The paramilitaries, who launched an armed campaign during the last (congressional) election ... are also carrying out an armed campaign in support of Dr. Alvaro Uribe's candidacy," said Liberal Party candidate Horacio Serpa, who is trailing a distant second in polls.

For weeks Serpa has alleged that paramilitary outlaws were supporting an unnamed candidate in the May 26 election -- widely assumed to be Uribe. But this was the first time he identified the 49-year-old election favorite by name.

The charges have dogged Uribe's campaign, with their hint that his hard-line stance against leftist rebels conceals sympathy for the rightist militias, whom he has publicly condemned. The paramilitaries are Colombia's fastest growing illegal armed group.

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