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To the dispute between former president Álvaro Uribe and the Colombian judicial system has come up with a new chessboard. An international one, with an emphasis on Washington.
This week, two initiatives were born, almost simultaneously, that seek to promote what their founders call the truth of research advanced by the Supreme Court against Uribe for alleged manipulation of witnesses, and that today the Prosecutor’s Office is in charge, and that he is under house arrest.
(In context: The ‘Free Uribe’ campaign was out of competition)
The first to be released was Uribe free, a bell which was launched by DCI Group, a public relations firm located in the American capital that was hired by the former identitye to help you spread your side of the story.
A few hours later, the International Monitoring Platform emerged, which is made up of five human rights organizations with an emphasis on legal matters whose objective, they argue, is to guarantee the “independence and impartiality” of the process.
Both launched their campaigns with accounts on social networks that have been growing like foam in recent days. Uribe free It already had, until the closing of this edition, almost 3,500 followers on Twitter while the Platform added more than 13,000 on the same network. And while their arguments are diametrically opposed, they coincide at the heart of the strategy: that Washington can be key in the course of this confrontation.
What Cepeda and the FARC want to do is impose a Marxist regime in Colombia and that is why they have launched this campaign without foundation against Uribe
EL TIEMPO spoke with representatives of both sides to learn about their proposals. But, above all, to try to explain why they consider that the international community is key in a process whose development and implications are in Colombia.
In accordance with Kevin Ivers, vice president of DCI Group, Free Uribe was born because there are groups that have been trying for years to discredit the former president and erase a legacy that is widely recognized in Washington.
“Uribe was a leader not only in Colombia but for the entire Western Hemisphere, who worked in partnership with Republicans and Democrats in this country to defeat international drug trafficking. And against that there is consensus in Washington. But they want to destroy that legacy through a process that from the beginning is full of irregularities, lies, and violations of due process, ”says Ivers.
According to him, behind everything is Senator Iván Cepeda and a political agenda that what he seeks is to reverse the ‘Plan Colombia, legalize drugs and establish a radical left regime in alliance with the Farc, a group that, he says, is still considered a terrorist by the US.
(You may be interested: ‘Free Uribe’: the campaign in the US that Cepeda rejects)
“What Cepeda and the Farc want to do is impose a Marxist regime in Colombia and that is why they have launched this campaign without foundation against Uribe, because they see him as an obstacle to their plans. And that is why it is important to deny false accusations and to know the truth”Ivers said.
Washington, says Ivers, has to pay attention because what Cepeda and his allies are trying to do could have serious consequences not only for Colombia but for the region.
According to him, many in the US capital and in the international community were not paying attention to this case and hence the need to keep them informed.
Since its appearance in networks, Free Uribe has published six dispatches and on its website they include the “acts” of the case as well as profiles of those who accuse Uribe and his links with the Farc. In one of those dispatches they maintain that the war of laws or warfare has arrived in Colombia, which – they say – It is the strategy that groups use when they cannot come to power through weaponss and they resort to manipulating the judicial systems to impose their agenda. Something similar to what Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro did in Venezuela.
In another they question judicial independence in Colombia in light of the news that Cesar Reyes, a court magistrate who prosecuted Uribe, had a contract with the government of Juan Manuel Santos for about 200 thousand dollars two years before reaching this dependency.
There is a long history of dirty maneuvers here to intimidate magistrates, witnesses, political opponents and human rights lawyers who work on these cases.
(Read here: Iván Cepeda announces new resources in the middle of the process against Uribe)
In the case of the International Monitoring Platform, it is made up of the Washington Office for Latin America, Lawyers Without Borders (Canada), International Observatory of Lawyers at Risk, Foundation of the General Council of Spanish Lawyers, and the National Lawyers Guild.
Although the initiative as such was announced in January this year, its public and social media component, it says, only began operating this week, after it appeared Free Uribe.
According to Ximena Sánchez, the person in charge of the Colombia program in Washington, the campaign arose for two reasons. One legal and the other political. The legal, says Sánchez, is to guarantee judicial independence, since the country already has a long history of attempts to manipulate this type of process. And he gives an example of the interceptions of which Court magistrates such as Iván Velásquez, as well as journalists, were subjected, and others when they investigated parapolitics during the Uribe government.
(Also read: Prosecutor Barbosa will not declare himself impeded in the case of Álvaro Uribe)
“There is a long history of dirty maneuvers here to intimidate magistrates, witnesses, political opponents and human rights lawyers who work on these cases. And that is why an oversight of international lawyers is necessary.“says Sánchez. Something that continues to be repeated as demonstrated this year by the new espionage scandal that is shaking the armed forces.
Politically, he says, they want to counteract the years of lobbying that Uribe and his allies did in Washington to sell a distorted image of a Colombia where there was no armed conflict and attacks against human rights defenders decreased thanks to their policies.
“We see that the trend has been to try to mask the information for the international community to confuse and discredit those who are legitimately doing their duty for there to be investigation and justice. Among them Senator Cepeda. And it is essential that there is an independent look outside of Colombia on what is happening and inform other interested parties, especially the US Congress and the press, “he says.
For her, Washington is key, because the Colombian elites place a lot of value on the bilateral relationship and because there is a component of economic aid for the fight against drugs and a great commercial exchange that weighs a lot and gives the US a very influential role.
“Politicians in Washington have a moral responsibility to demand fairness in these types of cases and protect human rights”, aim.
(In other news: Paloma Valencia’s five phrases about former President Uribe)
Both groups maintain that their campaigns are just beginning and are already preparing new strategies to make an impact in the US capital.
SERGIO GÓMEZ MASERI
TIME CORRESPONDENT
WASHINGTON
