One defining characteristic of Colombian politics under Uribe is that the same old debates just never go away. Since he came to office, the President has been bombarded with accusations of ties to right wing, drug-funded paramilitary groups. Scandals have come and gone over the last seven years, but the deeper debate over the President’s relations with paramilitaries rages on.

This week, for example, former warlord Miguel Angel Mejia Munera a.k.a. “El Mellizo” (The Twin) alleged that paramilitary umbrella group AUC brought Uribe to power in 2002, echoing similar statements by other imprisoned paramilitaries. Meanwhile, the nation has recently been gripped by the Agro Ingreso Seguro scandal, in which a government program aimed at reducing rural inequality was found to channel state money to prominent landowning families, some of them with links to paramilitary groups.

The president of the council, Adolfo Atehortua, condemned the nation’s anti-drug policy, saying that it had been a total failure. As proof, he said that neither the number of hectares planted with illicit crops nor the net production of drugs had been significantly reduced. He also suggested that the spraying stop as it was increasing poverty in rural areas, reported newspaper El Espectador.

“The general and indiscriminate aerial spraying of crops damages farmers who have no other options, the helpless producers, testers without life projects or jobs, but does not eliminate the persistency of the drug plantations,” the Council President argued.

He added that the worst part was that Colombia is no longer just an exporting country but has become a consumer country of drugs as well. He has urged the legalization of soft drugs in an international campaign and not merely in Colombia.