Colombia's ex-President Uribe charged with witness tampering in polarizing legal battle

Colombia’s ex-President Uribe charged with witness tampering in polarizing legal battle

BY JOSHUA GOODMAN AND MANUEL RUEDA
Updated 5:55 PM CDT, May 24, 2024


BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Former Colombian President Álvaro Uribe was charged Friday in a long-running witness tampering investigation.

Uribe was formally charged with witness tampering and bribery for his efforts to discredit a political opponent who was digging into Uribe’s family ties to right-wing paramilitary groups. If convicted, Uribe faces up to 12 years in prison.

The case dates back to 2012, when Uribe filed a complaint with the Supreme Court accusing a leftist lawmaker, Iván Cepeda, of slander. In 2018, the high court — the only authority allowed to investigate lawmakers — closed the investigation against Cepeda, and in a bombshell reversal, announced it was opening a new probe into Uribe, who was then a senator for fraud and manipulating testimony.

Uribe, who governed Colombia with strong U.S. support from 2002 to 2010, has denied any wrongdoing and has accused Colombia’s chief prosecutor’s office of “political vengeance.”

. . .

Allegations of ties to drug cartels and paramilitaries have dogged him since the early 1980s, when the civil aviation agency he then led was accused of giving air licenses to drug traffickers. Declassified State Department cables from a decade later show U.S. officials were told the up-and-coming politician had ties to cartels.

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https://apnews.com/article/colombia-alvaro-uribe-charges-witness-tampering-bd11a922142d000db1fcac178a1a147e









Bestowing the originally highly respected Medal of Freedom honor upon Álvaro Uribe