Colombia's ex-president Uribe convicted of witness tampering

Uribe is accused of persuading witnesses to lie in his favor in investigations into his alleged links to right-wing paramilitary groups.

The 73-year-old, who ruled Colombia from 2002 to 2010, is the first Colombian ex-president ever to be put on trial. When the judge announced the verdict, Uribe, who was connected virtually, received it with a shake of the head.

Criticism from the USA

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio sharply criticized the verdict. Uribe's only crime was "that he fought tirelessly for his homeland and defended it. The instrumentalization of the Colombian judiciary by radical judges has now set a worrying precedent," Rubio explained in the online service X. The current US administration sees the right-wing Uribe as an important ally in Latin America.

The matter dates back to 2012, when Uribe accused the left-wing senator Iván Cepeda of plotting against him before the Supreme Court with the aim of falsely linking him to paramilitary groups.

The court decided against prosecuting Cepeda and instead focused on the senator's accusations, which accused Uribe of having links to right-wing fighters and bribing witnesses. The ex-president explained that he had merely wanted to convince the fighters to tell the truth.

Uribe had led a relentless military campaign against drug cartels and the guerrilla organization Farc, which signed a peace agreement with the government in Bogotá in 2016 under his successor Juan Manuel Santos, much to his displeasure.