Former President Álvaro Uribe has been called to trial to answer in a case that began in 2018 and in which he is accused of procedural fraud and bribery of witnesses. The call was made by the Prosecutor's Office, an institution now directed by Luz Adriana Camargo, who took over her position a month ago. During the period of the previous prosecutor, Francisco Barbosa, in the same case, the Prosecutor's Office had requested the closure of the investigation, but two circuit judges denied that request and kept the legal case in limbo. This Wednesday's new call changes the course for the former president, who will now have to return to court to defend himself against the accusations, and not only to argue with the Prosecutor's Office that the case has no place. The new prosecutor says that it does take place.
“It is important to specify that this determination took into account new elements of evidence, such as the statements of Deyanira Gómez and Juan Guillermo Monsalve,” said the press office of the Prosecutor's Office when sharing the news. Monsalve is a former paramilitary who, during the trial, testified against Diego Cadena, Álvaro Uribe's former lawyer, alleging that the latter asked him, on behalf of the former president, to testify against the left-wing senator Iván Cepeda. Deyanira Gómez is Monsalve's ex-partner, and has also been a key witness against the former president's case.
The whole story has actually been going on for a decade now. In 2014, Cepeda held a debate in the legislature in which he pointed out alliances between former President Uribe and paramilitarism—according to several interviews he conducted and decided to publish. Uribe then reacted harshly, and immediately went to denounce Cepeda before the Supreme Court, accusing him of manipulating witnesses. But in an unexpected twist of this political plot, in 2018, the Court turned the case against the former president: it closed the legal case against Cepeda, and said it had evidence to open one against Uribe. He pointed out that the actor who was trying to get false witnesses was the former president himself. In 2020, when the Court found more elements to detain Uribe in house arrest, the latter resigned from the position he held as senator. Thus his case could be passed to the Prosecutor's Office, and the Supreme Court would not continue investigating him.
Uribe, it was understood at this time, was hoping for a more favorable investigator. He was Prosecutor Francisco Barbosa, one of the best friends of the president of the moment, the Uribista Iván Duque. And, indeed, the Prosecutor's Office asked on two occasions to close the case (preclude it). But, when that request passed through the judges' offices, the two considered that the case did not have to be closed, because there was enough relevant evidence to go to trial accusing Uribe of procedural fraud and bribing witnesses.
A month after the change of Prosecutor, now with Luz Adriana Camargo, the trial will finally start. Camargo was nominated by the current president Gustavo Petro, chosen by the Supreme Court, and is a jurist recognized for her courageous career against corruption. Almost two decades ago, in the Supreme Court, she was one of the investigators of parapolitics: cases in those politicians allied themselves with the paramilitary armies, several of them close to former President Uribe and today in prison. Years later she was recognized for her work as an investigator at the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CIGIG), which put several politicians on trial for corruption. In both cases she worked alongside the current Minister of Defense, the jurist Iván Velásquez.
““I am frankly surprised,” Senator Cepeda told Caracol Radio upon hearing the news, saying that he did not expect a decision from the prosecution soon. Former President Uribe did not speak immediately. But some of the Uribe congressmen who defend the head of their party, Democratic Center, did react instantly. “I can't find a logical or legal explanation for it. [a la decisión de la Fiscalía]. They turned this process from legal to political,” Uribista representative Hernán Cadavid told Semana magazine, arguing that there was no consistency if the Prosecutor's Office requested preclusion before and now the trial.
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