2024-07-21 05:29:23
Former President Álvaro Uribe Vélez responded to comments by President Gustavo Petro, who, without mentioning him explicitly, referred to Uribe in relation to the criminal proceedings he faces for bribery in criminal proceedings, procedural fraud and bribery.
This process, in which Senator Iván Cepeda was recognized as a victim, has been a subject of controversy.
President Petro made his comment in response to a post on X by Juan Manuel Galán, director of the New Liberalism Party, who criticized the security policy of the current government. Petro replied: «A former president tried to criminalize Ivan and today he is in serious legal trouble, do not do the same«.
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In response, Uribe posted: “The President of the Republic writes, in clear reference to me, that ‘a former President of the Republic tried to criminalize Senator Iván Cepeda.’ With the same infamous thesis, a magistrate, who was a work colleague of Senator Cepeda’s wife and a contractor for Santos in the Havana trial, put me in prison. For the same reason, I was accused by a prosecutor appointed and promoted by Dr. Montealegre.”
Uribe also accused Senator Cepeda of having made a “prison tour”» to obtain statements against him by offering benefits to prisoners. Uribe said that he reported these actions to the Court and questioned: «It seems that I do not have the right to defend my honor, but Senator Cepeda does have the right to manipulate prisoners to try to harm me.»
The former president also expressed his concern: “Reading the President of the Republic, one could infer that the one recently brought from the United States, previously a scourge of the President, came to reinforce the team that has accused me of being paramilitary, despite the fact that our Security policy saved the President, Senator Cepeda and his companions from the threat of paramilitary extermination.”
Finally, Uribe concluded: «It is not easy for me to think, knowing the trajectory of both, previously mortal antagonists, that today they are united by the purpose of defiling me, even if they disguise it as peace.«.
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