Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos on Wednesday defended his country’s justice system against criticism by his predecessor Alvaro Uribe.
“Colombia is a functioning democracy and functioning democracies give guarantees to its citizens, all kinds of guarantees,” Santos said.
The day before, the former president defended the decision of a former intelligence chief and an Interior and Justice Minister to seek political asylum abroad after the Prosecutor General’s Office opened criminal investigations into respectively their alleged responsibility in the illegal wiretapping of government opponents and the bribery of congressmen to secure the 2006 re-election run of Uribe.
According to the former president, these officials “do not have guarantees and the persecution of them is also threatening their lives.”
Santos denied this and stressed any Colombian citizen can expect a fair trial and security measures.
“No one can argue … that there are no adequate safeguards for a fair trial,” Santos said, adding that “the Colombian state has the capacity to protect any person that fears for his life. Because of this we consider that there are reasons to state the opposite.”