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News > Latin America

Colombia: Uribe's Resignation A Strategic Move?

  • Senator Alvaro Uribe presented his resignation Tuesday.

    Senator Alvaro Uribe presented his resignation Tuesday. | Photo: Reuters

Published 25 July 2018
Opinion

If the Colombian Senate accepts Uribe's resignation, the cases against him will go to the general prosecutor's office.

Former Colombian President turned senator Alvaro Uribe announced he would resign Tuesday after a decision by the country's Supreme Court to call for a formal investigation into charges of bribery and procedural fraud related to witness tampering.

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The court explained Tuesday in a press release that it had gathered “evidence that led them to open a formal investigation” against Uribe and representative Alvaro Hernan Prada, both belonging to president-elect Ivan Duque’s Democratic Center party.

On social media, there was an initial expression of joy, but alarm quickly replaced these feelings.

Legislator for the Democratic Pole and member of the congressional bloc for peace and life, Ivan Cepeda, urged Uribe to stop trying to avoid the Supreme Court and called for an international human rights groups review the judicial process.  

“If the Senate accepts Uribe’s resignation, the investigation will take an unexpected turn: the high court would lose competence to investigate him, and the case could go to general prosecution,” Cristian Garavito of El Espectador explains.

The only way the top court could continue with its investigation is if it can prove Uribe’s attempts to divert the investigation against him is linked to work as a legislator. However, according to local media outlet El Tiempo, sources within the court say the crimes are unrelated to Uribe’s work, implying the high tribunal would lose its jurisdiction.   

The debate is ongoing, however, political scientist Jorge Galindo contends in the past the Court has decided to hear the case of legislators even after they resigned, as happened with the para-politics scandal, that linked several legislators to paramilitary groups. While legal expert Santiago Vargas believes the supreme court would retain jurisdiction because the two crimes would have been committed when Uribe was a senator.

Gustavo Petro, former presidential candidate and current senator also warned through social media that Uribe’s resignation is meant to “dodge the investigation.” “The son of the butler of the Guacharacas estate, Juan Monsalve, accuses him of murder and, trying to change this declaration, Uribe manipulated witnesses criminally.”

The process in the supreme court began in February following an investigation against senator Ivan Cepeda, who was accused by Uribe of fabricating fake witnesses against him and his brother Santiago to link them with paramilitary groups in the department of Antioquia.

The court found there was no evidence of Cepeda tampering witnesses; instead, it found indications that the former president had attempted to get the former paramilitary members, who spoke with Cepeda, to change their original statements.   

Senator Uribe, who was recently re-elected, played a crucial role in Ivan Duque’s presidential campaign. Duque, who will be sworn into office on August 7, responded to the court’s decision saying “former president Uribe and all Colombians, must have all the guarantees to exercise their right to a defense, enjoying the presumption of innocence in the context of due process.”

If Colombia’s Senate accepts Uribe’s resignation, the supreme court could refer the cases of the massacres of El Aro, La Granja and the murder of the social leader Jesus Maria Valle, when Uribe was governor of Antioquia.

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