Colombia

During at least the first half of 2021, were producing weekly updates in English about peace accord implementation and related topics. Colombias Prosecutor-Generals Office (Fiscala) recommended on March 5 that former president lvaro Uribe (2002-2010) not be prosecuted for allegations of witness tampering. The case had Uribe, the founder of Presiden... t Ivn Duques political party, the Centro Democrtico, under house arrest between August and October. It now goes to a judge, whose decision about whether to drop charges is certain to be appealed. In 2012 ex-president Uribe accused a political opponent, then-representative Ivn Cepeda, of visiting imprisoned former paramilitary leaders and bribing them to give false evidence tying Uribe to paramilitary groups. Cepeda, whose senator father was killed in 1994 by paramilitaries working with an official who would take a leading position in Uribes presidential intelligence service, was investigating Uribes possible links to the rightwing armed groups. Because the accusation was against a sitting member of Congress (Rep. Cepeda later became a senator, along with Uribe, in 2014), Colombias Supreme Court took up the case investigation. In 2018, the Supreme Court determined that Ivn Cepeda had neither paid nor pressured the former paramilitaries with whom he had met, exonerating him. Instead, in a bombshell finding, the Court turned the tables and announced it would be investigating lvaro Uribe and his attorney for procedural fraud and bribery: essentially, offering bribes to a cast of characters of minor ex-paramilitaries in exchange for false testimony. The charges could carry a prison term of up to 12 years. On August 12, 2020, the Supreme Court ordered Senator lvaro Uribe placed under house arrest at his ranch in Córdoba. It issued a 1,500-page document laying out evidence against Uribe and his attorney, Diego Cadena, including videos, audios, intercepts, and WhatsApp transcripts. A February 28 column by investigative journalist Daniel Coronell recalls some of the ...Read More