Following Wednesday’s debate on the alleged criminal past of former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, a far-right senator and staunch Uribe supporter announced plans for a debate regarding supposed connections between congressmen and the country’s largest guerrilla group, the FARC.
In an attempt to deflect attention from the actual debate at hand, Senator Maria del Rosario claimed Wednesday there lacked a debate regarding “the responsibilities of congressmen and their relationship to the FARC.”
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“The guerrillas have been drug dealers too… The FARC have also profited from narcotrafficking and the cultivation of illicit drugs that are the conditions in which we see today,” said Del Rosario.
The Senator also asked counterpart Ivan Cepeda (who was instrumental in bringing about the paramilitarism debate), to show evidence of his accusations against Uribe.
“If there is proof you have the obligation to present it before the court just as Uribe has done and as he has done every time he has had information,” said Guerra.
In Wednesday’s debate, Cepeda spent 90 minutes exposing documents, photos, testimonies and video to proove ties between Uribe’s politically powerful family and Pablo Escobar‘s Medellin Cartel and the paramilitary organization AUC.
Uribe has long denied any such ties and claim the accusations come from criminals seeking revenge for his hard-line security policies.