Colombia News | Colombia Reports
  • News
    • General
    • Analysis
    • War and peace
    • Elections
    • Economy
    • Culture
    • Sports
    • Science and Tech
  • Travel
    • General
    • Bogota
    • Medellin
    • Cali
    • Cartagena
    • Antioquia
    • Caribbean
    • Pacific
    • Coffee region
    • Amazon
    • Southwest Colombia
    • Northeast Colombia
    • Central Colombia
  • Data
    • Economy
    • Crime and security
    • War and peace
    • Development
    • Cities
    • Regions
    • Provinces
  • Profiles
    • Organized crime
    • Politics
    • Armed conflict
    • Economy
    • Sports
  • Lite
  • Opinion
  • About us
  • Support us
  • Intelligence
  • Contact Us
Colombia News | Colombia Reports
  • News
    • General
    • Analysis
    • War and peace
    • Elections
    • Economy
    • Culture
    • Sports
    • Science and Tech
  • Travel
    • General
    • Bogota
    • Medellin
    • Cali
    • Cartagena
    • Antioquia
    • Caribbean
    • Pacific
    • Coffee region
    • Amazon
    • Southwest Colombia
    • Northeast Colombia
    • Central Colombia
  • Data
    • Economy
    • Crime and security
    • War and peace
    • Development
    • Cities
    • Regions
    • Provinces
  • Profiles
    • Organized crime
    • Politics
    • Armed conflict
    • Economy
    • Sports
  • Lite
  • Opinion
Former President Alvaro Uribe (R) and President Ivan Duque. (Image credit: Democratic Center)
News

Uribe rejects US cartel claims as ‘fake news’

by Jarrod Demir May 28, 2018
Colombia Reports relies on your financial support. Please become our patron and support independent reporting from Colombia.
The future of Colombia Reports is under threat. The country's largest independent news website needs your help. Please become our patron.

Colombia’s ex-president Alvaro Uribe has rebuffed declassified United States cables containing claims he had ties to the Medellin Cartel in the 1990s.

Uribe dismissed the accusations, and ongoing speculation, that his early Senate election campaigns were financed by the Ochoa crime family that helped Pablo Escobar found the infamous cartel.


Declassified US cables link Uribe to Medellin Cartel, again


“I have never received money for my campaigns,” Uribe said in a video posted on his Twitter account, rejecting the accusations as “fake news.”

Fake News, en elecciones, sin pruebas y con los chismosos muertos pic.twitter.com/q6wgV74ceP

— Álvaro Uribe Vélez (@AlvaroUribeVel) May 26, 2018

Uribe questioned that the central figure giving testimony in the US files, the late Luis Guillermo Velez, a long-time friend of the former president, would conspire against him.

“When I aspired to be the Governor of Antioquia, how strange that Luis Guillermo Velez, a close friend of Juan Manuel Santos, who now appears as an informant against me, supported me to be governor,” he says.

The former president contends that his 1990 campaign was managed by Jose Roberto Arango, the current CEO of television network RCN. He has acknowledged growing up with the Ochoa family.


Uribe’s cartel years


The polarizing figure questioned the timing of the cable release, just days out from presidential elections in Colombia where his protege Ivan Duque would be a favorite to become the nation’s next president.

Uribe is also under investigation by the Supreme Court for funding paramilitary groups responsible for the deaths of thousands of civilians.

Yet investigations have been stalled with the murders of several witnesses along with, according to the court, multiple others being intimidated at the hands of Uribe.

The US Defense Intelligence Agency and several investigative journalists have supported claims of Uribe’s ties to the now defunct Medellin Cartel.

According to the US embassy, receiving money from drug cartels was “a near universal practice in Colombian politics” at the time.

Colombia Reports relies on your financial support. Please become our patron and support independent reporting from Colombia.
The future of Colombia Reports is under threat. The country's largest independent news website needs your help. Please become our patron.
Alvaro UribeMedellin CartelPablo Escobar

Trending

  • Colombia’s state forces apparently involved in ‘orchestrated terror’ campaign against citizens

  • Who in Colombia is taking part in national strike and why

  • Colombia denies militarization as soldiers take Bogota ahead of anti-government protests

Weekly interviews and news updates

Related articles

  • Uribe struggling to prevent split in Colombia’s ruling party

  • Colombia finishes a week without Uribe on Twitter

  • The impending end of a crime family? Uribe’s brother’s ‘life saver’ flips

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Linkedin
  • RSS

@2008-2019 - Colombia Reports. All Rights Reserved.
Powered by Digitale Zaken and Parrolabs


Back To Top