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Huge political + legal event in Colombia tomorrow: senator + former president (2002–10) Álvaro Uribe Vélez will appear before Supreme Court preliminary inquest on paramilitarism-related charges. https://www.semana.com/nacion/articulo/indagatoria-a-alvaro-uribe-ante-la-corte-suprema-de-justicia/634805 1/
There are 59 open investigations into Uribe, 45 in House of Representatives + 14 in Supreme Court. These run gamut from slander to illegal domestic spying to criminal conspiracy. This inquest deals w/ bribery + procedural fraud. Paramilitarism is the common thread across most 2/
Recap: paramilitarism is the fusion of private + state power, whose contemporary form began w/ various regional projects begun in 1980s b/w incipient class of drug lords, older elites like ranchers + landowners, + state security agents, who allied vs growing guerrilla threat 3/
National Center for Historical Memory estimates that paramilitaries carried out 59% of 1,982 documented massacres b/w 1990 + 2012, along w/ 63% of episodes of extreme cruelty, largest proportion of internal conflict’s selective assassinations. http://www.centrodememoriahistorica.gov.co/micrositios/informeGeneral/index.html 4/
Paramilitary violence, political influence peaked in late '90s/early '00s, as Uribe came to presidency. He oversaw formal demobilization of largest paramilitary bloc by mid-'00s, though networks of power + violence that constituted paramilitarism left largely intact 5/
However, Uribe's alleged ties to paramilitarism go farther back. His Supreme Court appearance tomorrow traces back to some of those older associations 6/
Uribe's home region of Antioquia was the epicenter for paramilitarism's development, due to Medellín's role as hub of cocaine trafficking, but also legacies of ranching + extractive industries + labor mobilizations, weak state institutions on peripheries, strategic location 7/
(The best study of some of these antecedents, especially subregional dynamics within Antioquia, ideas about race + civilization, is Mary Roldán's 2002 book _Blood + Fire_) https://www.amazon.com/Blood-Fire-Violencia-Antioquia-1946-1953/dp/0822329182/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=blood+and+fire+antioquia&qid=1570471220&s=books&sr=1-1 8/
Uribe's family is emblematic. In 1977, Uribe's father purchased a ranch called Guacharacas in northern Antioquia. But in 1983, he was kidnapped + murdered by the FARC, as Colombia's internal conflict expanded + escalated. This event radicalized Uribe https://www.elespectador.com/noticias/judicial/la-historia-de-guacharacas-la-hacienda-de-los-uribe-articulo-884296 9/
Guacharacas was torched by the ELN in 1996, when Uribe was serving as governor of Antioquia. According to 2 now-imprisoned paramilitaries, Uribe and his brother, together w/ other area ranchers, responded by sponsoring a paramilitary group called the Bloque Metro 10/
The Bloque Metro would become an important paramilitary actor in Antioquia, including Medellín. You know them if you've ever seen @MargaritaM's superb 2005 documentary _La Sierra_ https://verdadabierta.com/creacion-del-bloque-metro-discusion-de-fondo-en-expediente-contra-senador-alvaro-uribe-velez/ 11/
What's at issue now in the Supreme Court is not Uribe's role in the creation of the Bloque Metro, but a more recent coverup 12/
2 parallel storylines to mention:
1) Allegations of Uribe's ties to the Medellín cartel from 1990s, detailed in this May 2018 NYT story, based on documents uncovered by
@colombiadocs.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/25/world/americas/colombia-uribe-drugs.html 13/
1) Allegations of Uribe's ties to the Medellín cartel from 1990s, detailed in this May 2018 NYT story, based on documents uncovered by
@colombiadocs.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/25/world/americas/colombia-uribe-drugs.html 13/
2) Uribe's brother Santiago has been arrested, though not tried, for running a smaller paramilitary group in the late '90s on another family ranch.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/08/world/americas/colombia-uribe-death-squad.html 14/
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/08/world/americas/colombia-uribe-death-squad.html 14/
See also more from @colombiadocs about this case: https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/news/colombia/2018-07-09/former-colombian-presidents-ranch-paramilitary-base-according-new-testimony 15/
Quite the coincidence in both cases involving the Uribe brothers + the founding of paramilitary groups: key witnesses keep getting murdered! https://www.elespectador.com/noticias/nacional/similitudes-en-el-asesinato-de-testigos-que-han-hablado-contra-alvaro-uribe-o-sus-cercanos-articulo-754080 16/
Here we enter the coverup. When elected to Congress in 2010, Iván Cepeda, 1 of the most important voices on the Colombian left, began carrying out human-rights monitoring in Colombian prisons https://www.elespectador.com/noticias/judicial/los-caminos-cruzados-de-alvaro-uribe-e-ivan-cepeda-articulo-884569 17/
In 2012, Cepeda shared w/ Congress the account of those 2 imprisoned paramilitaries about Guacharacas + the creation of the Bloque Metro. He also mentioned allegations vs Santiago 18/
Uribe responded by lodging a complaint w/ Supreme Court (which has jurisdiction over legislators) that accused Cepeda of offering paramilitaries money, reductions in prison sentences + other benefits for fabricating charges vs him 19/
The Supreme Court sat on Uribe's complaint for 3.5 years. Finally, in February 2018, it absolved Cepeda of the allegations
BUT WAIT THERE’S MORE
The Court instead announced it was investigating *Uribe* for witness tampering 20/
BUT WAIT THERE’S MORE
The Court instead announced it was investigating *Uribe* for witness tampering 20/
The Supreme Court began electronic surveillance on Uribe in February 2018. As I understand it, officials already had phone intercepts of Uribe talking about manipulating witnesses, now detected his allies trying to do more. https://www.elespectador.com/noticias/judicial/corte-suprema-abre-investigacion-uribe-articulo-802126 21/
In April 2018, Court ordered prison officials to strengthen protections for surviving witnesses in its custody 22/
In July 2018, Court announced it would summon Uribe to speak before inquest. (To be clear, tomorrow is a preliminary hearing, not a formal indictment; ht @jorgegj8.) But Court waited more than a year to announce date of tomorrow's testimony. https://www.elespectador.com/noticias/judicial/las-conversaciones-claves-para-la-investigacion-que-se-adelanta-en-contra-de-alvaro-uribe-articulo-802336 23/
Uribe went off on Twitter in April 2018 about the most recent murdered witness, who he called "a bandit who died by the rules he followed. It's good he's dead." https://www.las2orillas.co/uribe-se-descontrola-en-el-caso-del-testigo-asesinado/ 24/
Uribe later raised possiblity of stepping down from Senate, w/ idea that jurisdiction would pass from Supreme Court to regular justice system. Court didn't buy argument 25/
Supreme Court considering whether Uribe's representatives: 1) tried to tamper w/ witnesses to have them say that Cepeda guilty of tampering; 2) tried to get former Guacharacas worker to retract his testimony vs Uribe. Tomorrow's testimony about #2 https://www.eltiempo.com/justicia/cortes/alvaro-uribe-ante-la-corte-suprema-de-justicia-419996 26/
Supreme Court began calling witnesses in inquest on Sept 3. Most of the 42 witnesses have now testified, including paramilitary commanders still imprisoned in US for drug trafficking, as well as Cepeda. https://www.elespectador.com/noticias/judicial/caso-uribe-abogados-de-exparamilitares-y-un-periodista-declaran-en-la-corte-suprema-articulo-883594 27/
"Polarization" is a favorite word to describe this decade's Colombian politics: polarization b/w Uribe + Santos, b/w advocates + opponents of peace w/ the FARC. This inquest fits into that narrative 28/
Billboards proclaiming "Uribe is Colombia" went up in Antioquia last week; (evidently small) rallies in favor of Uribe happened on Sunday. Tomorrow will see Bogotá's pro-Uribe rally, as well as rallies in favor of judicial inquiry https://www.elcolombiano.com/colombia/politica/politicos-de-antioquia-respaldan-al-expresidente-alvaro-uribe-IA9112208 29/
So far as I've seen, the inquest isn't figuring into this month's regional + local elections. But if the Supreme Court moves to formally prosecute Uribe, the issue could well become a rallying point in the 2022 presidential contest 30/
The great Colombian jurist @RodrigoUprimny has said that tomorrow is a key test of the rule of law in Colombia + people should be prepared to respect whatever decision the Supreme Court reaches. https://twitter.com/RodrigoUprimny/status/1181209296488534019 31/
If you'd like to understand more about Uribe + paramilitarism in the 1990s, + subsequent campaigns for justice for the victims, I recommend @MMcFarlandSM's 2018 book _There Are No Dead Here_ https://www.mariamcfarlandsanchezmoreno.com/book 32/
If you found this thread interesting, please also check out my book #ForgottenPeace about the history of peace in Colombia + the origins of the FARC. https://amazon.com/Forgotten-Peace-Violence-Contemporary-Colombia/dp/0520293932 33/*
Update: following Uribe's Supreme Court testimony today, Court found sufficient cause to make Uribe part of the criminal case into bribery, procedural fraud going fwd https://twitter.com/CorteSupremaJ/status/1181717780560846850
