“The damage to Uribe is done and the polarization in Colombia will worsen”

Colombian politics entered a heated debate after the right-wing former president Alvaro Uribe was called to trial for alleged witness tampering in a case that dates back to 2018 and which faces the former head of state with a sentence of up to 12 years in prison. The polarization reached the left-wing president, Gustavo Petro, who was forced to state that he does not persecute the opposition.

TO LOOK: What is the former president of Colombia Álvaro Uribe accused of and what sentence could he receive?

The decision was the first of great impact by Attorney General Luz Adriana Camargo, who took office in March to replace Francisco Barbosa, a friend of the former president and at the time Uribe’s political heir, Iván Duque.

The case dates back to a lawsuit filed in 2012 by Uribe against Iván Cepeda, senator from the leftist Alternative Democratic Pole (PDA) who is now part of the ruling Historic Pact coalition. The former president intended to demonstrate alleged witness tampering as part of a conspiracy against him. But the Supreme Court refrained from prosecuting Cepeda and instead decided to open the investigation against Uribe in 2018 under the same suspicion: witness tampering against his opponent.

With the indictment, Uribe, who was president of Colombia between 2002 and 2010, will be the first former head of state to sit in the dock before ordinary justice, on a date yet to be defined.

Uribe was president of Colombia between 2002 and 2010. (Photo: EFE/Carlos Ortega). (Carlos Ortega/)

El Comercio spoke with Néstor Julián Restrepo Echavarría, doctor in Politics, Communication and Culture and coordinator of the Master’s in Political Communication at EAFIT University (Medellín), about the impact of this case on the country’s government and politics. For the expert, although it is not a question of persecution, the narrative of “political revenge” will divide public opinion.

—This is not a new case. Why has the process become relevant now?

The case has been going on for many years. At first the accused was not Álvaro Uribe, but Senator Iván Cepeda, but when the court began to analyze the matter closely, the person who accused became accused and an underlying problem that we had in Colombia began to be seen: paramilitarism. and accusations of paramilitarism. Then, Uribe initiated the action and, paradoxically, the action turned against him. I want to highlight that, unlike what happens with politicians in other countries, in this case there is no political persecution because this is not an issue of Gustavo Petro’s government, but has been going on for many years. Even under the government of Iván Duque, Uribe’s ally, this process also continued.

—What role did prosecutor Luz Adriana Camargo assume with this decision, the most important since she took office less than three weeks ago?

I think it was his turn. The prosecutor who was going to enter had to decide something. The outgoing prosecutor often became Uribe’s defense lawyer. What the new prosecutor did was take office and do the previous prosecutor’s delayed work, which is to accuse and go to trial. At this moment, former president Uribe is not guilty, he has to go to trial. Before, we hadn’t gotten to that part because the accusing entity wasn’t doing its job, which is to accuse.

— Álvaro Uribe reacted by stating that he is the object of “political revenge”. What does this tell us about your strategy for facing this process?

A politician like Álvaro Uribe will logically use these terms, he will talk about political persecution, revenge. That’s where public opinion comes in to measure this. If this process took so many years, even went through loyal governments and prosecutors, trying to close it and failing, that means there is something underlying that we have to analyze. There are many questions. On the part of former president Uribe, he will logically attribute everything to political persecution, to the narrative of revenge, which is happening all over the world.

— Gustavo Petro guaranteed that he will not persecute the Colombian opposition nor will he intervene in legal proceedings. How will this case affect the government?

What will happen in Colombia is that the rope will become much tighter and there will be much more polarization because it will be said that the leader of the right in Colombia is being persecuted. There will be a lot of fog and we will forget that this process takes a long time, it will be reduced to the fight between the left and the right, between Uribismo and Petrismo, and that won’t help. What’s more, this issue will become a battlehorse for the next presidential elections. If the candidates were already being drawn up, now they will be in Colombian politics with more anger and more emotional logic because Uribe generates hate and love everywhere and continues to be very strong in the country’s politics.

My government does not and will not persecute the opposition and will stay away from any intervention in judicial processes. Justice can always expect respect and protection of its independence from my government https://t.co/0tgWLSXfBm

— Gustavo Petro (@petrogustavo) April 10, 2024

—How strong is the case against Uribe and how likely is it that he will end up in prison?

Despite previous attempts to close the case, there are growing signs that something happened and former President Uribe, with all his power and his lawyers, was unable to erase it. There is evidence against Uribe and there is an important journalist called Daniel Coronel who took it upon himself to refute the arguments of Uribe’s defense based on journalistic investigations and recordings that increasingly involve Uribe. I see a very close trial for him, although in Colombia the expiration of deadlines is very common. What we will see from now on is the struggle and discussion to reach judgment. I imagine the theater on the day Uribe has to testify, but we are more likely to see an expiration of deadlines (deadlines) than Uribe in prison. However, the damage to Uribe is done and the division and polarization in the country are already anchored and will worsen based on this logic.

—How does the process affect Uribe’s party and the Colombian right?

It doesn’t negatively affect Uribe, but it will fuel him. I believe that in the next elections this will be one of your battlehorses, your party will use the supposed persecution of its natural leader because we must remember that Duque was not the leader of the party, he is still Uribe despite being in the process of retiring. The Democratic Center will make this happen, it will give you a lot of revenue. The agendas of the problems of armed conflict, urban insecurity and the economy would remain in the background. All of this will be positive for Uribe’s party.

Source: Elcomercio