Colombia’s Supreme Court wants Interior and Justice Minister Fabio
Valencia Cossio investigated for allegedly having signed a deal with
the FARC when he negotiated peace with the rebels. The deal would have
favored himself.
According to a document that was published by magazine La Otra Verdad (the other truth) in 2007, the FARC “promises to mobilize the population under their control, in order to support the candidacy of mister Fabio Valencia Cossio or Juan Camilo Restrepo Salazar.”
In the document, the Government in return would agree to allow a Constitutional Assembly to reform the country’s 1991 constitution.
The pact between the guerrillas and the then Senator would be similar to the ‘Ralito Pact’, a deal between Colombian politicians and paramilitary organization AUC that later would be the beginning of what is now known as the ‘parapolitics’ scandal.
In a written response to the media, Valencia Cossio said that the document is false and that La Otra Verdad had already rectified the publication of it.
“I never signed that document for which [the court] now calls a preliminary inquiry. This document, with its absurd, contradictionary and implausible content became known to me through the publication in that magazine,” the Minister wrote.
The Minister added he is “at the disposal of the authorities that request information or clarification of my actions, that have always been motivated by a patriotic decision to contribute to the peace and prosperity ofthe Colombians.”