“The privation of my liberty causes me profound sadness for my wife, for my family, and for Colombians who still believe that I have done something good for the country,” the former president wrote on Twitter.
Colombia’s Supreme Court just ordered the arrest of former President Alvaro Uribe as part of an investigation into witness tampering.
“The privation of my liberty causes me profound sadness for my wife, for my family, and for Colombians who still believe that I have done something good for the country,” the former president wrote on Twitter.
The case culminating with the arrest warrant of the two-time president of Colombia and now a senator began in September 2012 when Congressman Iván Cepeda promoted a debate against Uribe and presented the testimony of a former paramilitary, who said that in the 1990s in one of the propriety of the Uribe's family paramilitaries groups were promoted. Álvaro Uribe and his brother Santiago, according to the testimony, sponsored these armed forces.
Senator Cepeda said he had received a message from two leaders of these armed forces, Hernán Sierra and Juan Guillermo Monsalve, to visit them in prison. During the visit to Monsalve and Sierra, Cepeda received information that pointed to the Uribe brothers as key men in the formation of the Bloque Metro, one of the paramilitary groups that operated in northwestern Colombia. Uribe, then, filed a complaint against Senator Cepeda before the Supreme Court for an alleged plot, with false witnesses in Colombian jails, in order to involve him in those activities of paramilitary groups.
The high court refrained from prosecuting Cepeda and instead asked to investigate Uribe on suspicion of having manipulated witnesses against the Senator of the Polo Democratico. The Supreme Court has since evaluated the alleged manipulation of witnesses by Uribe to harm and delegitimize Cepeda. One of the testimonies that he would have tried to change is that of Juan Guillermo Monsalve, a former paramlitary who linked him directly to the armed groups.
