Colombia’s President Juan Manuel Santos expressed his support for Colombia’s justice system in the case against his predecessor Alvaro Uribe over illegal wiretapping.
“I would be very sad as a Colombian if my president, my predecessor-president ends up being involved in this scandal. I hope not, but if it happens, so be it,” Santos told Stephen Sackur of BBC’s Hardtalk in an interview in Davos, Switzerland, aired Monday.
“I’ve been supporting every single investigation, no matter who it touches,” President Santos told BBC, but affirmed that “I don’t accept that [Uribe] is guilty.”
Allegations of the illegal wiretapping of government opponents have reached many high ranking members of Colombia’s intelligence agency DAS, which answered directly to Uribe, during his administration. Investigations into the former president were officially opened in October.
“The relations that he had with his inner circle are something that only he knows. But it could very well be that his inner circle did things he didn’t know, but that is for the justice system to determine,” the Colombian president told the BBC.
Santos also said that he would not resume negotiations with the FARC unless the rebels prove they are serious about peace.
“I will not talk to them unless they show us that they really want a peace agreement or to lay down their arms,” he explained.
“Too many times they have used these talks in order to recuperate themselves, as a moment to rest and get some strength,” he maintained, adding that “we will not again repeat that facade.”
He called on the FARC to demonstrate genuine peaceful intentions and says that Alfonso Cano, the FARC’s supreme commander, must “first cease operating as terrorists and, second, liberate all the kidnapped people.”
