Alvaro Uribe (Image: court feed)
Colombia’s Prosecutor General’s Office opened a formal investigation into former President Alvaro Uribe for his alleged ties to a paramilitary group in his native Antioquia province.
In a post on social media platform X, Uribe said he had been called to testify about his role in the two massacres and the assassination of a human rights defender who publicly denounced the former president when he was governor of Antioquia between 1995 and 1997.
The Prosecutor General’s Office subsequently published a press release in which it laid out the charges against Uribe.
The crimes in which he is alleged to be involved are aggravated conspiracy to commit a crime and the murder of a protected person, for allegedly facilitating and promoting the activities of that illegal armed group, which is said to have used the Guacharacas estate—owned by the Uribe Velez family at the time—as its base. The investigation also refers to the former governor’s possible involvement in paramilitary raids in the townships of La Granja and El Aro in the municipality of Ituango, carried out between 1996 and 1997, during which multiple homicides, forced displacements, arson of homes, and cattle theft were recorded. Similarly, the Delegate to the Supreme Court of Justice ordered that Uribe Velez be charged in connection with his alleged involvement in the 1998 murder of human rights defender Jesús María Valle Jaramillo.
Prosecutor General’s Office
The criminal investigation comes months after Uribe was absolved of bribing witnesses who had testified about the role of the former president and his brother Santiago Uribe in the creation of the Bloque Metro paramilitary group.
Santiago was sentences to 28 years in prison by an Antioquia court for creating and leading the 12 Apostles paramilitary group, which killed more than 500 people between 1992 and 1998.
The Uribe family became a prominent fixture in regional politics under the protection of the Ochoa Clan, which helped found the Medellin Cartel in the late 1970’s. The former president’s family has since been linked to the Sinaloa Cartel.
