Jornal Do Brasilia - Colombian ex-president Uribe found guilty of witness tampering

The 73-year-old, who led Colombia from 2002 to 2010, was found guilty of trying to persuade witnesses to lie for him in a separate investigation into his alleged ties to right-wing paramilitary groups.

He risks 12 years in prison in the highly politicized tampering case, but the sentence has not yet been pronounced. Uribe was the first Colombian ex-president ever to be put on trial.

As the judge started reading out her verdict, Uribe -- who attended the trial virtually -- sat shaking his head.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio of the United States, which counted right-wing Uribe as a key Latin American ally, slammed the guilty finding.

Uribe's "only crime has been to tirelessly fight and defend his homeland. The weaponization of Colombia's judicial branch by radical judges has now set a worrisome precedent," Rubio said in a post on X.

The matter dates to 2012, when Uribe accused leftist senator Ivan Cepeda before Colombia's Supreme Court of hatching a plot to falsely link him to paramilitary groups involved in Colombia's long-standing armed conflict.

The court decided against prosecuting Cepeda and turned its sights on the senator's claims against Uribe instead.

Paramilitary groups emerged in the 1980s in Colombia to fight Marxist guerrillas that had taken up arms against the state two decades earlier with the stated goal of combating poverty and political marginalization, especially in rural areas.

A plethora of armed groups that emerged in the standoff adopted cocaine as their main source of income -- the genesis of a deadly rivalry for resources and trafficking routes that continues to this day.

Uribe had led a relentless military campaign against drug cartels and the FARC guerrilla army that signed a peace deal with his successor Juan Manuel Santos in 2016 -- much to his chagrin.

After Cepeda accused him of ties with paramilitary groups responsible for human rights violations, Uribe is alleged to have contacted jailed ex-fighters to lie for him.

He claimed he only wanted to convince them to tell the truth.

A judge Monday found him guilty on two charges: interfering with witnesses and "procedural fraud."

- Popular politician -

Uribe remains popular in Colombia for his anti-FARC campaigns, and is still a prominent voice on the right.

Recent opinion polls revealed him to be the South American country's best loved politician.

In 2019, thousands protested in Bogota and Medellin when he was indicted in the case, and on Monday, followers gathered outside the court wearing masks fashioned after his image and chanting: "Uribe, innocent!"

The investigation against Uribe began in 2018 and has had numerous twists and turns, with several attorneys-general seeking to close the case.

It gained new impetus under Attorney General Luz Camargo, picked by Petro -- himself a former guerrilla and a political arch-foe of Uribe.

More than 90 witnesses testified in the trial, which opened in May 2024.

Prosecutors produced evidence during the trial of least one paramilitary ex-fighter who said he was contacted by Uribe to change his story.

- 'Vengeance' -

The former president is also under investigation in other matters.

He has testified before prosecutors in a preliminary probe into a 1997 paramilitary massacre of subsistence farmers when he was governor of the western Antioquia department.

A complaint has also been filed against him in Argentina, where universal jurisdiction allows for the prosecution of crimes committed anywhere in the world.

That complaint stems from Uribe's alleged involvement in the more than 6,000 executions and forced disappearances of civilians by the military when he was president.

Uribe insists his trial is a product of "political vengeance."

On Sunday, he gave an hour-long speech in his native Medellin in which he criticized the administration of Petro, who in 2022 became Colombia's first leftist president.

"We need an enormous victory in the coming year," Uribe said, in reference to presidential elections set for 2026.

C. de Fatima--JDB