Alvaro Uibe, former president, found guilty of witness subornation

Former Colombian President Alvaro Uibe was convicted on Monday. Furthermore, July 28, July 28, of having tried to put pressure on a witness to avoid being associated with the far-right militias having waged a bloody war against the guerrillas, in the first trial targeting alvaro uibe, former president, found a former Colombian state head.

The 73 -year -old politician. In addition, president from 2002 to 2010, was accused of having sought to change the version of the witnesses in an investigation concerning him. Consequently, His trial was very followed less than a year from the next presidential election.

The judge in charge of the case declared Mr. Nevertheless, Uribe guilty of a witness subornation, during a hearing on Monday in Bogota followed from the former leader. For example, Also prosecuted for procedural fraud, he faces up to twelve years in prison. Furthermore, This first instance decision may be the subject of an appeal.

In 2012. Nevertheless, Alvaro Uibe had accused the left of the left Senator Ivan Cepeda of having hatched a plot to bind him wrongly to paramilitary groups involved in the long Colombian armed conflict. The Court decided not to continue alvaro uibe, former president, found Mr. Cepeda and rather looked at the accusations relating to Mr. Uribe, suspected of having contacted veterans imprisoned to lie in his favor. The former leader says he only wanted to convince them to tell the truth.

The investigation against Alvaro Uibe began in 2018. had many twists and turns, several general prosecutors who have sought to classify the case. His trial, opened in May 2024 and broadcast live by local media, saw more than 90 witnesses parade.

According to the testimony of a condemned paramilitary. Alvaro Uibe and his brother Santiago Uibe participated in the creation of a paramilitary group known as “Metro Bloc” in the department of Antioquia in the 1990s.

This witness says that Diego Cadena, one of Mr. Uibe’s lawyers, put pressure on prison visits to change his statements and tried to bring him. The lawyer is the subject of alvaro uibe, former president, found a separate trial.

Alvaro uibe. former president, found

A figure from the right

The paramilitary groups appeared in the 1980s in Colombia to fight the Marxist guerrillas who had taken up arms against the State two decades earlier with the declared objective of fighting poverty and political marginalization, especially in rural areas.

In recent decades. a alvaro uibe, former president, found plethora of armed groups have adopted cocaine as the main source of income, fueling a bloody rivalry that continues in Colombia.

The court decision concerning the ex-president. appreciated by part of the population for his firmness with regard to the guerrillas but also criticized for suspicions of human rights violations during his presidency, brought a blow to the Colombian right with a view to the presidential election of May 2026.

Washington. by the voice of Marco Rubio, head of American diplomacy, denounced a “Instrumentalization of the judiciary” by “Radical judges”believing that “The only crime of former Colombian president Uribe is to have defended and fought tirelessly for his country”.

Alvaro Uibe. at the head of the Centro Democratico Party (Democratic Center), remains a key figure in the political scene of his country and has a great influence on the Colombian right, in opposition since alvaro uibe, former president, found the coming to power, in 2022, of the first leftist president of the country, Gustavo Petro.

The ex-derigerator proclaims his innocence. believes that this is a political trial motivated by a desire to « vengeance » From the left, the former guerrillas of the FARC and the former president Juan Manuel Santos, signatory of the agreement which disarmed the FARC in 2017.

It is the subject of surveys in other cases. Thus. he testified before the prosecutors in a preliminary investigation into a paramilitary massacre of small farmers in 1997, when he was governor of the Western department of Antioquia.

A complaint was also filed against him in Argentina. where the universal jurisdiction makes it possible to pursue crimes committed anywhere in the world, for his presumed involvement in more than 6,000 executions and forced disappearances of civilians by the army when he was president.