Uribe becomes first Colombian ex-head to be convicted, sets off ‘political earthquake'

South China Morning Post

7 days ago

Former president Alvaro Uribe Velez has become the first
Colombian head of state to be convicted of a crime, a landmark decision expected to reverberate through the country's political system less than a year before presidential elections.
A judge in Bogota ruled on Monday that Uribe, who governed from 2002 to 2010, was responsible in the first instance for bribery of witnesses and obstruction of justice after a more than 10-hour hearing.
The case centres on allegations that the right-wing leader dispatched intermediaries to prisons to pressure former members of illegal armed groups into altering their testimony – retracting accusations against him and instead implicating left-wing Senator Ivan Cepeda.
Uribe, 73, remains a deeply divisive figure in Colombia. For some, he is a hero credited with saving the country from collapse, particularly through his military campaign against Marxist guerillas like the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc). His successor, Juan Manuel Santos, later signed a peace deal with the Farc in 2016.
Others, however, believe Uribe had ties to paramilitary groups who sought to undermine Colombia's democratic institutions. His military campaign was marred by the 'false positives' scandal: the killing of innocent civilians by the military, who falsely presented them as guerilla members to inflate combat statistics.
While some high-ranking officers have been convicted of such crimes, Uribe has denied wrongdoing or that his policies encouraged such actions. He has also denied connections with right-wing paramilitaries.