Former Colombian President Álvaro Uribe, who served from 2002 to 2010, has been found guilty of bribery. This conviction comes from a witness tampering case. Judge Sandra Heredia of Bogotá’s 44th Criminal Court made history this week with her ruling. Even more momentous, if finally criminally convicted, Uribe will be Colombia’s first former president to suffer such a fate. The court found that there was ample evidence to uphold the guilty verdict, putting to a close a trial that spanned 67 days.
Uribe’s legal issues began in 2018 when… His graft attempts were compounded by attempts to coerce witnesses connected to Iván Cepeda, a senator in the current ruling coalition of the Pacto Histórico party. In 2012, Uribe charged Cepeda with trying to implicate him in the creation of a paramilitary bloc. This baseless accusation ignited a nationwide flood of investigations. Consequently, Uribe was later called to the Supreme Court for witness tampering, among other charges.
Uribe’s trial was a long, dramatic affair, with Uribe throughout insisting that he was not guilty of any of the charges. He would spar with Cepeda at times in dramatic fashion throughout the proceedings, a testament to the high stakes at play in the case. The trial focused the spotlight not only on Uribe’s past actions, but deeply underscored the rift between Colombian political factions that continues to this day. As the most influential and public member of opposition party Centro Democrático, Uribe’s conviction is likely to carry political ramifications.
Judge Heredia’s decision found that Uribe had committed bribery in an attempt to tamper with witnesses’ statements. This very conviction demonstrates the exceptional challenges that Colombia still faces to address its difficult past. It especially highlights the repeated difficulty with violence and paramilitary infiltration.
