Colombia’s Supreme Court objects to leaving the Press
Secretary out of the disciplinary investigation into the visit of paramilitary
representatives to the Presidential Palace, while the presidential spokesman was
present at the meeting.
Inspector General Alejandro Ordoñez decided only to investigate the President’s judicial advisor Edmundo del Castillo for meeting with the defense attorney of extradited warlord Diego ‘Don Berna’ Murillo and Severo Antonio ‘Job’ López, the paramilitary spokesman who was suspected member of the ‘Office of Envigado’ and murdered months after the meeting in 2008.
Even though Press Secretary Cesar Mauricio Velasquez Ossa was at the same meeting, he will not be investigated, Ordoñez decided on April 22.
The Supreme Court objects to this decision and orders Ordoñez to review his decision and include Velasquez in the investigation.
The officials say their meeting inside the Presidential Palace with the paramilitary warlord’s allies was within the law and they only met them because the attorney claimed to have evidence proving a Supreme Court plot against President Alvaro Uribe. This alleged evidence was never made public.