Yahir Acuña was named the newest investigator in a congressional committee investigating former President Alvaro Uribe‘s possible involvement in the illegal wiretapping of government opponents.
Acuña’s predecessor, Cambio Radical Representative Camilo Andres Abril, resigned May 25, just two days after taking over the investigative role because of threats he was reportedly receiving, telling him not “to mess with Uribe.”
The original lead investigator Alfredo Bocanegra Varon (Conservative Party) resigned May 4 for reasons of possible bias explaining that he “would not renounce his critical thinking.”
For his part, Acuña, a congressman from Sucre department represented by the Afrovides political movement told El Espectador Thursday, “The country wants to know the legal truth from the wiretaps.”
“If ex-president Uribe eventually has some type of responsibility [in the wiretaps scandal] our hands will not tremble as we carry the investigation to the very end under the law.”
Acuña added, however, that “nor will we tremble to take decisions that we will have to take” if Uribe is eventually found to be innocent.
When asked about the threats received by his predecessor the congressional investigator replied, “I believe my responsibility is above my particular interests and eventually my security.”
According to a report from newspaper El Tiempo, the congressional investigator is named in military intelligence reports for having suspected links to paramilitaries. Acuña responded by saying that he can prove that he does not have ties with paramilitary organizations.
The three-person Congressional Investigation and Accusation Commission including congressmen Heriberto Escobar (National Integration Party) and Augusto Posada (Partido de la U) will determine if the former head of state had any involvement in the wiretapping scandal that has already implicated Uribe’s chief of staff Bernardo Moreno and intelligence agency DAS former director Maria del Pilar Hurtado.
Both Hurtado and Moreno have been formally charged by Prosecutor General Viviane Morales for illegal wiretapping and were barred from holding public office by the Inspector General’s Office.