Last February a scandal threatened to completely immerse the Uribe government and further connect the President with Paramilitary groups in a scandal referred to as the Parapolitica. Two months on and the scandal will not disappear nor does it appear to have particularly hindered the President.
This scandal, involving a high ranking member of his cabinet, Minister of Foreign Relations Maria Consuelo Araujo, her brother Senator Alvaro Araujo Castro and her father, former Agriculture Minister Alvaro Araujo Noguera has links that run directly into Valledupar society and the Festival of Vallenato itself.
However, people do not appear shocked by the allegations and the investigations as Paramilitary groups have long boasted to have infiltrated congress. The notion of politics and violence being interlinked in Colombia is well established and inherent. It seems that every other day a new threat is levied and further allegations are flung about with impunity.
Maria Consuelo Araujo resigned her post in the wake of the investigation into her brother and father’s alleged ties to the kidnapping and extortion of the former Mayor of Valledupar Victor Ochoa Daza.
The Araujo family have been involved with the Festival since its very conception and are one of the key families in Valledupar. So involved is this family that the Festival itself was created by the late Consuelo Araujo Noguera, aunt to the politicians Maria Consuelo and Alvaro.
This kind of scandal came as no surprise to the people of Valledupar or those in the entire Cesar department. The name Araujo is synonymous with Vallenato, the Festival and events that have occurred relating to Colombia’s long running conflict.
Consuelo Araujo Noguera was kidnapped by the FARC in September 2001 and was tragically killed in a rescue attempt and is now remembered with the Festival dedicated to her memory.
Can the Festival recover from being tainted with links and accusations of Parapolitica? It appears that perhaps the folklore will continue, this recent scandal will be absorbed into the veils of popular legend that enshroud the Festival and that the rhythms of the Accordion, Caja and Guacharaca will serve as able ambassadors to smooth over the public relations nightmare. Last year 85,000 people attended the Festival and this year authorities are expecting more. One hopes that the Vallenato music and the hospitality of the people of Valledupar can continue to promote the region.
“Politics is politics and folklore is folklore,” said Dario Pavajeau, one of the Festival’s founders.
If only it were all so simple.
