BOGOTA: Former Colombian president Alvaro Uribe will appear before the attorney general’s office next week over a 1997 paramilitary massacre, authorities said Thursday.
While Uribe was governor of the Antioquia department, a group of 150 right-wing paramilitary members killed at least 15 people in the village of El Aro.
Last week, paramilitary leader Salvatore Mancuso, at a hearing with Colombia’s Special Jurisdiction for Peace, said Uribe “always knew about the operation.”
The country has for decades been convulsed by fighting between the security forces, leftist guerrillas, right-wing paramilitaries and drug gangs. The former president has been called to appear before the Attorney General on Monday after he requested “to be heard,” authorities said.
Uribe, who was president from 2002-2010, said on social media that Mancuso was a “bandit” who accused him “without direct evidence and with contradictions to previous statements.” Uribe is also under investigation for corruption and procedural fraud in a witness tampering case. Mancuso appeared before the Special Jurisdiction for Peace — a special court born from a 2016 peace accord with FARC rebels — from the United States, where he was extradited in 2008 for drug trafficking.
He promised to reveal criminal links between politicians and businessmen to the Special Jurisdiction for Peace. While in office, Uribe had taken a hard stand against left-wing guerrillas — a stance applauded by his supporters but criticized by the opposition. He remains a prominent voice on Colombia’s right, which ceded power to left-wing President Gustavo Petro in the 2022 election. Petro took office with a stated goal of achieving “total peace” among the armed groups operating in the country, a task that has so far proved elusive as multiple peace talks and ceasefires are pursued with various movements.