Colombia’s prosecutor general’s office has reopened an investigation into a meeting between the former AUC spokesman and several government officials that took place at the presidential palace in Bogota in 2008.
The ex-paramilitary spokesman Antonio Lopez, alias “Job,” who was murdered a few months after the meeting, allegedly met with former Cauca governor Juan Jose Chaux, as well as then-press secretary Cesar Mauricio Velasquez and Uribe’s presidential adviser Jose Obdulio Gaviria.
Lopez was joined by Diego Alvarez, the lawyer for now-extradited paramilitary chief Diego “Don Berna” Murillo, although the details of what was discussed during the controversial meeting remain unclear.
Extradited AUC commander Ever Veloza, alias “H.H.,” claimed this week that part of the meeting was aimed at expediting his extradition to the U.S., in order to prevent him speaking out about ties between politicians and paramilitary death squad, a phenomenon called “parapolitics” in his court statements.
A recently published WikiLeaks cable, meanwhile, revealed that Colombia’s Chief of Police, General Oscar Naranjo, privately accused Jose Obdulio Gaviria of being the organizer of the clandestine meeting, something Gaviria has angrily denied.