Colombia’s justice has ruled that former president Álvaro Uribe Vélez should be tried, accused of bribery of witnesses and procedural fraud. After 12 hours of session last Wednesday (27), Judge Carmen Helena Ortiz said “it is clear that there is a possible hypothesis about the materiality of the crime of bribery to criminal proceedings”. Uribe’s defense can still appeal the decision to the Superior Court of Bogotá.
Last year, the Public Ministry analyzed the accusation and asked for the case to be closed, in response to a request from the former president’s defense. The judge questioned the request of the Colombian MP and reiterated the initial decision of the Supreme Court of Justice.
“It is an unprecedented decision in Colombia. For the first time a head of state will have to appear before a judge to assume criminal responsibility for very serious facts”, declared Senator Iván Cepeda, author of the complaint that led to the case against Uribe.
understand the case
Former Colombian president and senator Álvaro Uribe Vélez is accused of bribery and procedural fraud. The case began in 2014 with the complaint by Cepeda (Polo Democrático) that Uribe had supported and financed the creation of the group to limit Bloque Metro, an arm of the Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (AUC)
Irregular armed groups began to emerge in the 1980s in Colombia, but during the Uriba government, they were granted amnesty on charges of crimes against civilians with the approval of the law of “justice and peace”em 2005.
In response, Uribe filed a lawsuit against the leftist senator, alleging that Cepeda had paid bribes to imprisoned paramilitaries to testify on his behalf.
However, four years later, Colombia’s Supreme Court of Justice dropped the case for lack of evidence against the senator and, at the same time, opened an investigation against Uribe, accused of bribing witnesses.
Juan Guillermo Monsalve, a paramilitary sentenced to 40 years in prison, would be one of the key witnesses in the process, which heard 42 people. Monsalve is the son of the farm’s caretaker The Guacharacas, owned by Uribe in the department of Antioquia, and would have been the training site for the armed group Bloque Metro.
After confirming that paramilitary exercises were carried out on the former president’s property, Monsalve wrote a letter of retraction, asking for forgiveness for having testified against Uribe, stating “this letter I write under pressure from lawyer Diego Cadena and Enrique Pardo Jacher, sent by the former president “.
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In addition to Monsalve’s testimony, the Supreme Court of Justice also collected videos, text messages and telephone intercepts that confirmed Uribe’s support for the paramilitary group.
In 2020, the Supreme Court decreed preventive detention for the then senator for considering that there were risks of obstruction of justice. Uribe remained under house arrest for two months and then resigned as senator, causing his case to pass from the Supreme Court to the Public Ministry.
At the time, the former president claimed to be a victim of political persecution and said he had no guarantees in the CSJ.
The Colombian MP issued an opinion stating that evidence was lacking to try Uribe.
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Who is Alvaro Uribe?
A representative of the Colombian agricultural elite, Álvaro Uribe Vélez is a 69-year-old far-right politician from Medellín, Antioquia. As a member of the Liberal Party he was elected councilor, secretary general of the Ministry of Labour, mayor of Medellin and governor of Antioquia in 1994.
After ruling the country from 2002 to 2010, Uribe founded the Democratic Center party and was elected senator in 2014. Today, the party has the largest bench in Congress and runs the country under the management of current president Iván Duque.
A Special Justice for Peace (JEP) states that there is evidence of at least 6,400 cases of false positives during the first six years of Uriba’s administration. False positives are civilians executed by the army and counted as “guerrillas killed in combat”.
There are also a series of complaints about his relationship with drug trafficking. Declassified documents from the US Embassy in Bogotá, which date from 1992 to 1995, place Uribe on a list, which included Pablo Escobar, and characterized him as a political ally of the Medellín Cartel.
Uribe was one of the protagonists of the campaign against the 2016 Peace Accords.
Editing: Arturo Hartmann and Thales Schmidt
