[ad_1]
In a letter addressed to Senator Iván Cepeda, former Florida Congressman Connie Mack asks him to clarify his closeness with the FARC and some of its members considered terrorists and drug traffickers in their country. For his part, the Colombian senator affirmed that there is a persecution campaign against him with the purpose of intimidating him and that he should only “respond to competent authorities.”
(Also read: They ask to investigate Cepeda’s visits to ‘paras’ in the US)
Mack, a member of the Republican Party, was a legislator until 2013. A month ago the @FreeUribe campaign, created by the public relations firm hired by former President Álvaro Uribe Vélez to defend him in the United States, announced that Mack had joined their efforts.
In the letter, Mack tells Cepeda that he must answer nine questions about events that he says could be considered criminal conduct and argues that the US should open an investigation to get to the bottom of the matter.
Many of them are related to his closeness to Jesús Santrich and Iván Márquez, two members of this guerrilla who were part of the peace process, but who decided to take up arms again. Likewise, with Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro, the latter recently accused before the US courts of drug trafficking and money laundering.
(You may be interested: Iván Cepeda denies offers to paramilitaries imprisoned in the United States.)
“I believe that Americans should know the truth about their possible role in decades of criminal activities among their political allies and associates. In order to obtain that truth I ask that you please answer these questions publicly,” the former legislator tells him.
Why, Mack asks, did you actively obstruct Santrich’s extradition to the United States? even though a grand jury in this country asked him to answer for serious crimes?
In addition, he asks him to answer how many contacts and communications he has had with Santrich since he helped him “to leave Colombia” in May 2019 and if those contacts are still maintained.
He also asks him to give the date he learned that Santrich intended to escape justice and resume the armed struggle and if you have deleted the emails and chats that you had with the guerrilla.
(Also read: We are going to appeal the decision ‘: Cepeda on Uribe’s freedom’)
More delicate still, he tells Cepeda to clarify whether he communicated with Santrich or Márquez between 1999 and 2008, when these leaders were already accused of drug trafficking in the United States and peace negotiations had not yet begun.
And he asks him to clarify if he spoke with members of the Farc before traveling to the United States. to meet with the paramilitaries imprisoned in this country in order to seek information to incriminate the former Colombian president.
Cepeda’s response
For his part, Cepeda published a video on Twitter where he says there is a campaign to intimidate him. “Uribismo in alliance with sectors of the Republican Party has launched a persecution campaign against me, using lies and slander in the US The purpose of that campaign is to intimidate me and also take revenge for the fact that its leader, former senator Uribe, has been the subject of a prison for months and has also had to resign from the Senate of the Republic. ”
“I, of course, am not going to be intimidated. And I am going to study the legal and legal measures that proceed in this case. I only have to answer to competent authorities and not to any political leader in the US who is campaigning electoral “, added the senator.” They have not been able to intimidate me, neither the uribismo nor their boss in Colombia, neither will their allies in the United States, “concluded Cepeda.
(You may be interested: Uribistas celebrate decision on the ex-president)
A weeks ago, Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart wrote another letter to the Department of Justice in which he asks to investigate the visits that Cepeda made to the paramilitaries between 2008 and 2009.
SERGIO GÓMEZ MASERI
EL TIEMPO correspondent
WASHINGTON
Read also:
-They file complaints of police abuse to the International Criminal Court
-‘Luigi ‘Echeverri must retract after harsh letter against Iván Cepeda
