Former president and current senator Alvaro Uribe was called to testify for claiming the capital Bogota’s public television network “serves terrorism.”
During a September debate on Uribe’s alleged links with paramilitaries and the Medellin Cartel of Pablo Escobar, Uribe called Bogota’s Canal Capital and Venezuela’s Telesur “media outlets that serves terrorism.”
MORE: Uribe vs. Cepeda, the damage after the battle between Colombia’s opposites
The statement has proved to create more problems for the already scandal-plagued ex-president.
Prosecution accepts charges
Prosecutor General Eduardo Montealegre said, “We are going to call Uribe to testify because of the gravity of his statements, and he will have the opportunity to present the evidence with which he sustains his supposed thesis that Canal Capital, a respectable media outlet, is part of terrorist actions.”
Canal Capital is the most threatened news organization in Colombia, according to El Universal. The director of Canal Capital, Hollman Morris, reminded former President Uribe that unsubstantiated words, like those Uribe said in the political debate, have resulted in the death of many journalists.
Morris — a vociferous critic of the Uribe administration’s human rights record — was arbitrarily detained on a number of occasions during the Uribe administration when he was reporting for alternative newscast Contravia. Back then, Uribe and his then-Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos accused the journalist of working together with the FARC.
Santos later apologized to Morris, the journalist told Colombia Reports.
On Monday, Morris went to meet personally with Prosecutor General Eduardo Montealegre, presenting him a petition signed by 150 employees, inviting Montealegre to investigate the news organization for ties with illegally armed groups.
On Wednesday, Morris and Canal Capital took legal action against Alvaro Uribe for slander.
A number of media outlets from all over the country and covering the political spectrum have announced their solidarity with Canal Capital.
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Polygraph test challenge
Congress President Jimmy Chamorro also fired back after being accused by Senator Uribe of receiving drug cartel money.
Chamorro underwent a polygraph test on Wednesday which he says proves that he had no links to drug cartels, never received money or support from drug trafficking groups, and that he wasn’t lying.
“The polygraph shows the results that I have never received any type of support or money from narcotrafficking,” affirmed Chamorro, according to El Tiempo newspaper.
“I challenge Uribe to tell me today when he will realize the same polygraph test, or if he wants we can do it together in the spot he chooses,” declared Senator Chamorro, in a direct challenge to his accuser.
The former President is one of the most polemic politicians in the country and has been for decades. In the 1980’s, Uribe s facing ongoing allegations of his apparent ties to the Medellin Cartel and is currently investigated for his alleged ties to paramilitary organization AUC. The hard-line politician has been ordered to rectify false accusations on a number of occasions.
Sources
- Uribe será citado a la Fiscalía por señalamientos contra Canal Capital (El Universal)
- Trabajadores de Canal Capital solicitan a la Fiscalía que los investigue (El Universal)
- “Canal Capital, medio de comunicación servil al terrorismo” Alvaro Uribe Velez Senador (Youtube)
- Uribe tendrá que declarar en la Fiscalía por señalamientos contra Canal Capital (Youtube)
- ¿Qué resultados dio el polígrafo que se practicó Jimmy Chamorro? (El Tiempo)