Colombia’s former president Alvaro Uribe on Wednesday threatened to sue his former defense minister over allegations Uribe impeded an operation to arrest a FARC commander.
In an interview with radio station Caracol, the polemic ex-president threatened to sue his former minister and ambassador to the United States, Gabriel Silva, for claiming that Uribe impeded an operation to apprehend FARC leader, “Ivan Marquez.”
“President Uribe prevented me from extracting Ivan Marquez from Venezuela, it was a…planned operation and he prevented it,” Silva said Wednesday.
Uribe adamantly denied Silva’s assertions.
“I encouraged military intelligence to find out if the bandits were there [Venezuela]…I wish I would have submitted it [a mission to capture Marquez], I would have enthusiastically supported [it],” Uribe told Caracol Radio.
The former President referred to the fact that he ordered the bombing of “Raul Reyes” and authorized the capture of “Simon Trinidad” in Ecuador as sufficient evidence that he would never have done impeded an operation to take down Marquez.
Uribe was quick to turn the tables on his political rival, the current President of Colombia Juan Manuel Santos, and his administration for being soft on terror and contributing to the “deteriorating security” in Colombia.
“These bureacrats [are] living [in] a fantasy…[and they] justify [their] new friendship with terrorism…The government wasnt to cover Santos because all they care about is advertising [the] promotion of dialogue with terrorism in Havana,” said the ex-president.