Former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe has again spoken out against his accusations of alleged fraud in the second round of Colombia’s presidential elections, which saw the defeat of his handpicked candidate.
Former President Uribe attacked the country’s electoral process which led to the defeat of his candidate, Oscar Ivan Zuluaga, claiming that the country’s largest rebel group, the FARC, forced citizens with “a rifle in the neck” to vote for incumbent President Juan Manuel Santos in the elections, local media reported on Wednesday.
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Speaking on Wednesday in an interview with NTN24, Uribe claimed that the ongoing peace talks with the FARC had undermined the security advancements that had been made under his administration.
He cited the case of a deteriorating security situation in Colombia’s capital, Bogota, where five explosives attributed to the FARC were uncovered, two of which exploded causing property damage.
Also on Wednesday, Uribe spoke before the Prosecutor General’s Office about the alleged drug money income of the first presidential campaign of Juan Manuel Santos in 2010, reported Radio Santa Fe.
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The former head of state declared that “regarding the first campaign of President Santos, today I have confirmed and added serious information about drug money from narcotics trafficking, which was used to pay the debts of his campaign.”
Uribe had previously urged an investigation to confirm whether former advisor and campaign manager J.J. Rendon gave $2 million to the financial campaign managers Santos in 2012 to cover-up cash problems in his successful 2010 campaign.
He continued, saying that, “the recent election of President Santos was between fraud, vote buying with money from official corruption, the armed pressure of terrorism, and abuse of peace to generate electoral panic.”
Uribe also spoke out about the hacking scandal which surrounded Zuluaga’s campaign claiming that it was a set-up.
“I’ve also given information leading to establish that the hacker was controlled by one of the recipients of drug money, and was staged against Oscar Ivan Zuluaga,” said Uribe.
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A video emerged during the elections showing hacker Andres Sepulveda informing Zuluaga about what appears to be illegally obtained US military intelligence.
The video also shows that the information was obtained not only from Colombian authorities but also from the United States Armed Forces.
Both Uribe and Zuluaga claimed the video to be a set-up and a “montage” during the course of the elections.