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Former President Álvaro Uribe Vélez will invest at least $ 120,000, about 450 million pesos, in a public relations firm whose mission is to sell to the media in the United States his version of the events in the case that the Supreme Court of Justice is advancing and that you are under house arrest.
Last week, this newspaper reported that Uribe had hired DCI Group, a Washington-based company, for this purpose. It was the same firm that “press” handled the former Minister of Agriculture Andrés Felipe Arias when he was detained in the United States and pending his extradition to Colombia.
Batteries against Cepeda
EL TIEMPO contacted Tomás Uribe and he explained the purpose of the hiring:
“That is a communications firm in the United States, and, in fact, EL TIEMPO had already registered the hiring last week. As you know, the United States has been Colombia’s main ally in the fight against drug trafficking and this fight had the greatest advances in the government of Álvaro Uribe.“he explained.
And he added: “It seems absolutely important to us that it is known that behind the process against Álvaro Uribe is the leader of the new generation of the Farc, which is Iván Cepeda and who is also the architect of the escape of ‘Jesús Santrich’, requested in extradition. for the United States. “
According to DCI Group’s official record with the Department of Justice, the contract with Uribe runs from August 20 to November 20 and will cost $ 40,000 a month.
DCI, like any company in the United States that does business with foreign agents involved in politics, you have to periodically record your transactions and contracts with these people or entities.
This is thanks to a 1938 law, the Act for the Registration of Foreign Agents (Fara), which requires documentation for a matter of transparency.
The contract between Uribe and DCI Group was signed by his son Tomas, who appears as president or CEO of a company based in Medellín under the name 31416 SAS
According to the documents obtained by this newspaper, the firm 31416 SAS aims to ‘support Álvaro Uribe’.
TIEMPO spoke with the company’s representatives in Washington and they maintain that their work will be limited to public relations and media, but will not include lobby before the US Congress.
The firm was registered in Medellín and Tomás Uribe appears as its representative.
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