Former presidential advisor under Alvaro Uribe, Jose Obdulio Gaviria, has lashed out at the Chief of Colombia’s National Police (CNP) Oscar Naranjo after a WikiLeaks cable showed Naranjo alleged Gaviria organized meetings between government officials and paramilitaries at the presidential palace.
Speaking through Twitter, Gaviria said, “It’s evident: Naranjo lied to the embassy (betrayal of Colombia) and the president (betrayal of the government).”
He added, “Uribe and Santos said in December that they trusted you (Naranjo). After today, will they say the same?”
Gaviria’s angry reaction came after a cable dated August 28, 2008, relayed how Naranjo had told the then-U.S. Ambassador William Brownfield, in confidence, how he believed that meetings in the presidential palace between government officials and the lawyer of extradited paramilitary chief Diego ‘Don Berna’ Murillo and ex-paramilitary spokesman Antonio ‘Job’ López, had been organized by Gaviria.
Though the meetings came under public scrutiny at the time, this is the first mention of Gaviria’s alleged involvement.
The two paramilitaries are said to have offered video recordings to the government that revealed that Supreme Court Magistrate Ivan Velazquez, the chief investigator into the “parapolitics” scandal, had tried to undermine Uribe by collecting false evidence to implicate him in the scandal.
In the same cable, Brownfield recounts how Uribe used a television broadcast to accuse Velazquez of “trafficking in witnesses,” and “getting drunk” with witnesses.
Uribe frequently clashed with the Supreme Court over matters pertaining to both the parapolitics scandal and the illegal wiretapping carried out by the DAS under the Uribe administration, often accusing them of politicising the processes rather than carrying out correct judicial procedure.
Gaviria’s furious outburst toward Naranjo is the second in just over three months.
In December last year, Gaviria responded to a cable from October 2009 where Oscar Naranjo told Brownfield that he personally suspected Uribe’s Chief of Staff Bernardo Moreno and Gaviria of having ordered the illegal wiretaps of government opponents.
Gaviria wrote, “What evidence did you have, Naranjo? I noticed this hostile environment, but naively I thought of enemies, not betrayal.”
Gaviria is currently under investigation for his part in the wiretapping scandal.