Álvaro Uribe, the man of the hard hand that governed Colombia between 2002 and 2010, to the point of forging a country in his image and likeness, was sentenced to a penalty of 12 years of house prison for the crimes of procedural fraud and bribery in criminal action. Judge Sandra Heredia’s ruling was filtered to the press media before her official announcement. The scope of the sanction was expected by various political analysts. The relationship of political forces in Colombia did not seem to allow Uribe’s sending to a common prison. He was imposed in turn a fine of about $ 82,000 and an disqualification for more than eight years for the exercise of public rights and functions. The lawyers of the leader of the rightist democratic center warned that they will immediately appeal a conviction that they consider without foundations.
Judge Heredia has considered otherwise because she could prove that Uribe knew about the search for witnesses in the country’s prisons that could favor her with her testimonies. The lawyer Diego Cadena was in charge of offering Juan Guillermo Monsalve, a former employee of the ex -president’s family hacienda, succulent benefits in exchange for modifying his version on the alleged links of Uribe and his brother Santiago with paramilitaries of the extreme right in the Antiquia region.
Heredia in turn endorsed as overwhelming tests the interceptions made to the telephones of Uribe and Cadena that allowed to illuminate the plot. He also considered the chain attempt proven to manipulate Carlos Enrique Vélez, aka “Víctor” “an exparamilitary who had received money to alter his testimony.
According to Radio Caracol, the judge “went down in history” of Colombia as heroine and also villain. The right curses her. Beyond the opinions found, inconsible evidence has emerged: Heredia has been subject to virtual pressures and threats. The enemies of the magistrate leaked in X information about tastes and particularities of the judge’s childhood, her past in courts and photos of her work team. President Gustavo Petro demanded that a prosecutor take action on the matter. Representatives of organizations and victims of the criminal process against Uribe, including the left -wing senator, Iván Cepeda, asked the UN to intervene urgently to monitor the second instance of the process and help guarantee a free trial of interference.
Conservative Presidents claim
In this context, more than a dozen conservative presidents in Latin America and Europe, including José María Aznar and Mariano Rajoy, expressed their rejection of Uribe’s conviction and assured that the process was vitiated by “anomalies.” For the signatories of the Charter, the leader of the Democratic Center is an “exemplary Colombian” who has collaborated in each instance of the judicial process against him despite being a “tortuous procedure.” But the sentence against him “has been built on a chain of irregularities.”
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