Colombia’s former President Alvaro Uribe Velez. File
| Picture Credit score: Reuters
The Colombian prosecutor’s workplace stated Thursday (June 19, 2026) it had launched a probe into influential former President Alvaro Uribe over his alleged hyperlinks to massacres by paramilitary teams through the worst years of the nation’s armed battle.
Greater than 1 / 4 of 1,000,000 individuals have been killed throughout Colombia’s six a long time of preventing between left-wing guerrillas, right-wing paramilitaries, drug traffickers and the army.
Uribe, who ordered an offensive in opposition to guerrilla teams throughout his presidency between 2002 and 2010, has at all times denied hyperlinks to paramilitaries.
The precise-wing hardliner was sentenced final yr to 12 years of home arrest for bribing imprisoned paramilitaries to lie about their alleged hyperlinks to him. However a Bogota court docket later overturned the conviction, and the Supreme Court docket is at present dealing with the case.
The prosecutor’s workplace stated in an announcement Thursday (June 18) it could summon Uribe concerning “occasions associated to the formation of a paramilitary group” in Antioquia in Colombia’s northwest throughout his time as governor there from 1995 to 1997.
He’s additionally accused of involvement in massacres by paramilitaries within the villages of La Granja in 1996 and El Aro in 1997.
Uribe is accused of aggravated conspiracy to commit a criminal offense and homicides of protected individuals.
The previous President can also be accused of involvement within the killing of rights activist Jesus Maria Valle Jaramillo, who was shot lifeless by suspected members of paramilitary teams in 1998, after denouncing the then-governor’s response to the El Aro and La Granja massacres.
Uribe confirmed in a publish on X that he was summoned for questioning, including: “Dealing with this ordeal simply hours earlier than the election” — referring to Sunday’s runoff polls that can decide the nation’s subsequent President.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro warned Uribe that he was “on the verge of falling right into a state of affairs” that he “wouldn’t need.”
The summons in opposition to Uribe comes per week after his brother, Santiago Uribe, turned himself in to serve an virtually three-decade jail sentence for main a paramilitary group within the Nineties, the ex-leader stated.
Revealed – June 19, 2026 10:34 pm IST