The Colombian attorney general opened an investigation Thursday into three Uribe administration officials who met several times with paramilitary representatives at the presidential palace.
Legal secretary Edmundo Del Castillo, press secretary César Mauricio Velásquez and former governor Juan José Chaux, who resigned as the Colombian ambassador to the Dominican Republic earlier this week over the scandal, are the targets of the investigation, reports Semana magazine.
The trio had a handful of meetings with the lawyer of extradited paramilitary chief Diego ‘Don Berna’ Murillo and ex-paramilitary spokesman Antonio ‘Job’ López, since assassinated, in the Casa de Nariño, Colombia’s White House. The three remain at liberty.
An agent of the DAS, Colombia’s intelligence service, and lawyer Óscar Iván
Palacio who also reportedly attended the meetings, were not mentioned in news reports of the investigation.
The pair of paramilitary representatives had told the administration they had evidence against the Supreme Court president, according to reports.
Last Sunday, Semana magazine published what it said were conversations between ‘Job’ and the ambassador Chaux, in which the former diplomat suggested his interlocutor talk with another paramilitary leader, Hebert Veloza, aka ‘HH’, and not to make public their links with the far-right groups.