President Juan Manuel Santos has defended former President Alvaro Uribe in light of ongoing corruption investigations into members of the previous Colombian administration.
Speaking during a visit to Florencia, Caqueta, Santos said, “Some people say that because we denounce acts of corruption we are attacking the previous government … which is a fallacy … President Uribe … is a clean man, an honest man, is a man committed to the fight against corruption.”
He added that any cases of corruption from the last eight years were due to personal acts of disobedience and not government culture, lamenting the fact that corruption has been a problem in Colombia for years and is not particular to any one administration.
In relation to the ongoing investigations into illegal wiretapping operations carried out by the DAS under Uribe, Santos said that in his role as minister of defense he can personally attest that the former president had absolutely no involvement in the illegal surveillance.
Several former DAS officials are either still under investigation or have already been sentenced for carrying out illegal wiretaps against government opponents, journalists, lawyers and human rights workers during the Uribe administration.
Numerous former politicians from that era have also been jailed or are under investigation for their involvement with paramilitary groups as part of the “parapolitics” scandal.