Colombia’s Prosecutor General’s Office opened a preliminary investigation into the alleged ties between the brother of former President Alvaro Uribe and paramilitaries in the north of the Antioquia department, a victims’ lawyer said Tuesday.
The lawyer for the victims of the “12 Apostles” paramilitary group in Yarumal told newscast Noticias Uno that the investigation was started to find out if the accusations of a former police commander who had said Uribe led the “12 Apostles” are true.
According to the accusation, the group killed petty thieves, and suspected guerrillas and their sympathizers, in the town where the Uribe family has a business.
Santiago Uribe has always denied his family’s involvement in crime and claims the allegations are part of a carefully orchestrated campaign to hurt the former president. “The enemies of the president will not rest, and he knows it very well,” Santiago Uribe told the Washington Post in May.