The hearings, according to Judge 44 of Bogota, will be extended for the next five days.

This Monday began the evidentiary phase of the trial against former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, who came in person after attending the trial mostly virtually. Uribe denied having sent lawyer Diego Cadena or any other emissary to bribe former paramilitaries and witnesses to favor him.

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The witnesses known to be called by Uribe’s defense are close to 70, including family members, politicians, former high-ranking officials, lawyers, experts and former drug traffickers.

Last Tuesday, Carolina Vargas, former analyst of the Technical Investigation Corps who analyzed the wiretaps made to the former president’s cell phone in 2018, testified. The Prosecutor’s Office argued that the calls show attempts by lawyer Diego Cadena to obtain testimony in favor of Uribe, through pressure or monetary offers.

As part of this stage of the trial, involving prosecution witnesses, testimony was collected from former paramilitaries. They alleged links of the former Colombian president with the emergence of armed groups acting outside the law.

Pablo Hernán Sierra commented that while he was governor of Antioquia, in November 1996, Uribe issued a resolution authorizing the association “Convivir El Cóndor”, of San Roque, to take surveillance and defense actions.

The witness said that “Convivir’s base, in San José del Nus, was next to the Ganadero bar, on a property owned by the former president’s family. The Convivir office was there.”

Convivir was the name given to self-defense groups and private security and surveillance cooperatives in Colombia, which progressively mutated until they merged with paramilitary structures.

Carlos Enrique Velez, a former member of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia’s Metro group, said that lawyer Diego Cadena offered him 200 million pesos, which translates to about 45,000 dollars at the current exchange rate, to deny the former president’s alleged links to paramilitary forces.

The hearings, according to Judge 44 of Bogota, will be extended for the next five days. A schedule will also be set for the presentation of the defense’s evidence.

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