Colombia’s chief prosecutor on Sunday announced an investigation of the brother of Colombia’s ex-President Alvaro Uribe for allegedly conspiring to discredit the country’s housing minister.
In an interview with newspaper El Espectador, Prosecutor General Eduardo Montealegre said he “immediately” will investigate claims by Housing Minister German Vargas Lleras that Uribe’s brother is behind accusations the minister met with paramilitary warlord “Martin Llanos” when he was still senator.
“The prosecutor General’s Office will immediately call Mr. Santiago Uribe and the minister who says to have information to testify,” Montealegre told the newspaper.
According to Vargas, the former president’s brother is behind “parapolitics” accusations that led to a disciplinary investigation by the country’s Inspector General’s Office. The Uribe brothers denied this immediately.
The prosecutor general said his office will not investigate the alleged ties between Vargas and the commander of the now-demobilized paramilitary organization AUC because of a lack of “credible evidence.”
Inspector General Alejandro Ordoñez opened a preliminary investigation against the minister based on testimonies of the former ICT director of dismantled intelligence agency DAS, Rafael Garcia, and the jailed former governor of Arauca, Julio Acosta.