Colombia’s former president Álvaro Uribe has been found guilty of witness tampering and procedural fraud in a case which has thrust his alleged links to paramilitary groups into the spotlight and could land Uribe in prison.
On Monday 28 July, Judge Sandra Liliana Heredia ruled that Uribe had attempted to bribe imprisoned paramilitaries to incriminate Senator Iván Cepeda, a long-time Uribe critic. In 2014, before the Supreme Court, Uribe accused Cepeda of fraud and of falsely claiming Uribe had colluded with paramilitary groups that were behind massacres, forced displacements and other serious human rights violations.
However, in 2018, the Supreme Court found that Cepeda had no case to answer, while at the same time launching an investigation into Uribe on suspicion of coercing former paramilitaries to provide false testimony against Cepeda. This led Uribe to renounce his Senate seat in 2020 in a move calculated to transfer jurisdiction of his case to the then-Attorney General, an Uribe ally.
The Bogota court’s verdict effectively finds that Cepeda’s allegations against the former president were valid, and that Uribe broke the law seeking to protect himself. While an appeal is set for October, Uribe could face a 12-year prison sentence if the ruling is upheld. While the court absolved Uribe of having attempted to bribe a lawyer, Hilda Niño, to provide favourable testimony about him, it also found that claims by a number of former paramilitaries against Cepeda were not credible.
According to witness Juan Guillermo Monsalve, whose father worked on the Uribe family ranch in Antioquia in the 1990s, Uribe and his brother Santiago had participated in the creation of a paramilitary group, the Bloque Metro. In 2018, Uribe’s lawyer, Diego Cadena, offered benefits to Monsalve if he withdrew his testimony. Unknown to Cadena, Monsalve recorded the meeting and provided the evidence to authorities. Monsalve later received a similar offer from another associate, Carlos López. Former paramilitary Carlos Enrique Vélez also testified that Cadena offered him money to speak positively about Uribe.
Cadena is currently on trial on accusations of bribery and fraud. Uribe has claimed he was unaware of his lawyer’s attempts to manipulate witnesses, but the Judge rejected this stating that, ‘there is no doubt that the accused knew his actions were illegal.’
Meanwhile, in November 2024, Santiago Uribe was acquitted of belonging to a paramilitary group, the 12 Apostles, which in the 1990s and 2000s operated in Antioquia and targeted people they accused of guerrilla sympathies which included many social activists, as well as those considered ‘social undesirables’ such as homeless people, sex workers and addicts.
The long-running investigation into Uribe has polarised public opinion. As founder of the hard-right Democratic Centre political party, Uribe retains a hardcore following among right-wing voters – known as uribistas – who revere his hardline and militaristic presidency, which lasted from 2002 until 2010, for allegedly having prevented a guerrilla takeover of the country. It was Uribe who led opposition to the peace process with the FARC, culminating in the ‘No’ vote against the agreement in a 2016 national plebiscite. Uribe’s enduring support saw his favoured candidate, the hitherto little-known Iván Duque, elected president in 2018.
However, following the 2016 Peace Agreement Colombia’s transitional justice court, the Special Jurisdiction for Peace, found that during Uribe’s presidency the military murdered 6,402 innocent people and presented them as guerrillas killed in combat. For many Colombians, Uribe’s presidency is synonymous with state atrocities against civilians and neoliberal policies that pushed millions of people into poverty. The verdict is a further political blow for the Colombian far right, which is why its international allies are mobilising to attack the judges.
Uribe has long been suspected of colluding with paramilitary groups while governor of Antioquia in the 1990s. Often working alongside the army, landowners and corporations, these groups used extreme violence to target trade unionists, peasants, community leaders and other civilians. Millions of people were driven from their homes by military and paramilitary violence.
Uribe’s legal team has said it will appeal the ruling in another court, the Bogota Superior Tribunal. If that court upholds the verdict, a further appeal is likely. However, for the countless victims of state abuses and paramilitary violence in the 2000s, there is hope that justice will finally catch up with the former president.