But the former president has been embroiled in a witness tampering scandal in the country's judicial system for more than a decade. It dates back to 2012, when Mr. Uribe accused his fellow senator Iván Cepeda of bribing witnesses in a conspiracy to link him to right-wing militias in the country. Then in 2018, the country's highest court reversed the case, dismissing Uribe's charges and instead investigating whether he had obstructed justice and manipulated witnesses in the case.
In 2020, the high court ordered Uribe briefly under house arrest while the investigation continues. Under previous presidential administrations, prosecutors twice requested that the case be closed, but the judges rejected the request.
Now, Colombia's new attorney general, Luz Adriana Camargo Garzón, chosen by the Supreme Court last month, has decided to proceed with the case. His office issued a statement Tuesday announcing that prosecutors will indict Uribe on charges of witness tampering and procedural fraud based on physical evidence collected.
Mr. Uribe has repeatedly denied the allegations against him and any ties to paramilitary groups.
For generations, Colombians have considered Uribe a political giant. To some, he is revered as a war hero who saved the government from collapse at the hands of left-wing guerrillas. Under his leadership, murders, kidnappings, and other attacks have plummeted. The country's largest rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (also known as FARC), has been significantly reduced in size and power under his presidency. The Colombian government under Mr. Uribe's successor government would later sign a peace agreement with the FARC.
In 2009, U.S. President George W. Bush awarded Mr. Uribe the Presidential Medal of Freedom, recognizing his “resolute compromise” at a time when Colombia was “at best a failed state, at worst on the verge of becoming a nation.” He praised his leadership. It's a drug state,” President Bush said.
But Mr Uribe also ruled the country during what was considered one of the darkest periods in Colombia's recent history. According to Colombia's Special Peace Jurisdiction Law, Colombia's military extrajudicially killed thousands of people who were mistakenly labeled as enemy combatants in a scandal known as a “false positive” incident. At least 6,402 Colombians were murdered between 2002 and 2008 Peace authorities said the soldiers, many of whom were unemployed and poor and some disabled, said their deaths were casualties of war.
Mr. Uribe resigned from the Senate in 2020, in what many saw as a strategic effort to force jurisdiction over his cases from the Supreme Court to the attorney general's office. The attorney general at the time was seen by many as working closely with then-President Iván Duque, an ally of Uribe.
On Tuesday afternoon, Duque released a video defending his mentor, who played a key role in his presidential campaign.
“We view with sadness the charges leveled against him today,” Duque said. “We know that not only will he come forward, but that his coming forward will prove that there is real justice in Colombia.”
While some allies of Uribe may argue that the charges amount to political persecution under the left-wing government of President Gustavo Petro, Colombian legal scholar Rodrigo Uprimny said that He said the secretary is not considered close to the president. Three previous decisions by the Supreme Court and two independent judges had already blocked the case.
“For years, former President Uribe sought to evade accountability by manipulating the judicial system and exploiting his political connections,” said Juanita Goebertus Estrada, Americas director at Human Rights Watch and former Colombian lawmaker. said. “This decision reminds Colombians that no one is and should not be above the law.”
