Uribe becomes first Colombian ex-leader to be convicted, sets off ‘political earthquake’
US State Secretary Marco Rubio has called the former president’s trial ‘the weaponisation of Colombia’s judicial branch by radical judges’
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, was not in court for the verdict as the judge has so far not ordered his arrest. He followed the ruling from his home outside Medellin but did not immediately speak about it. He faces up to 12 years in prison but a sentencing will be delivered in a separate hearing. He is expected to appeal the ruling.
The former president 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.