Ex Minister for the Interior and Justice Fabio Valencia Cossio joins those coming out in defense of former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, following a complaint against the retired leader before the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Valencia Cossio said that Uribe supporters “are all on the same wavelength and we will not allow President Uribe to be tainted or persecuted.”
“We are going to defend the work of his government and there is no way that we will not be at the president’s side,” said Valencia Cossio, who served in Uribe’s cabinet from June 2008 until the end of the president’s term in August 2010.
Colombian Congressman Ivan Cepeda presented a complaint against Uribe for slander before the ICC.
The complaint regards comments made by Uribe in 2002 in which he accused the inhabitants of the San Jose de Apartado peace community, along with Jesuit Priest Javier Giraldo, of colluding with left-wing guerrillas. Following the accusations, 20 members of the peace community were murdered.
Colombian Congress investigated the accusations against Uribe, but the then-president was absolved of any wrongdoing.
Other Uribe supporters, including Juan Lozano, president of Colombia’s Partido de la U, have also defended the former president against criticisms.
