Colombia’s ruling party announced they want to dismantle the war crimes tribunal after the transitional court barred the extradition of a FARC leader to the United States.
Former President Alvaro Uribe, the leader of the far-right Democratic Center party, responded fiercely to the ruling of the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) to release “Jesus Santrich” after it found no evidence to support a US claim that the ex-FARC commander conspired to traffic drugs after the former rebel leader signed peace in 2016.
Former President and Democratic Center leader Alvaro Uribe
Uribe added that the JEP should have simply agreed to extradite the former FARC leader without examining evidence.
If the crisis was not resolved, he said, the very fabric of Colombian society is in danger.
“Both the ruling [on ‘Santrich’] and the successful vote [to reject to Duque’s objections to the JEP] demonstrate a profound crisis and institutional destruction.”
President Ivan Duque and Uribe, who has been accused of a series of war crimes, have tried to limit the powers of the war crimes tribunal for years, but without success because the majority of Congress has supported the JEP.
Duque said on Wednesday that he would respect the court’s order to release Santrich, but that he was ready to sign off on his extradition as soon as a court allowed him.
Devastated Duque vows to respect court order to release FARC leader
Uribe and his far-right Democratic Center party would have to amend the constitution to be able to dismantle the JEP that is part of an ongoing peace process they have fiercely opposed for years.
Uribe said he was confident that Duque would “recover the exercise of authority that the country had ceded in favor of the FARC and other terrorist groups” as a result of the peace process.