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Republican Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart asked US Attorney General William Barr on Wednesday to assist you in an investigation to determine if the views that Senator Iván Cepeda made of paramilitaries in US prisons vThey violated the laws of the country and served to commit acts of corruption or interference in legal proceedings.
(Also read: ‘Uribe still does not have freedom’: Iván Cepeda on Court decision)
In a letter obtained by this newspaper, Diaz-Balart explains to Barr that numerous press reports indicate that Cepeda visited Juan Carlos Sierra Ramírez, alias the ‘Tuso Sierra’, in May 2009, when he was imprisoned in the United States.
Sierra is one of the group of 13 paramilitaries that the government of President Álvaro Uribe extradited in 2008 and among whom was also Salvatore Mancuso.
According to the congressman, those reports indicate that “Cepeda would have met with Sierra to offer him political asylum in Switzerland if he offered information that would incriminate Uribe in criminal associations.”
(You may be interested: Court responds to Cepeda who appears among those outlined by the Army)
Likewise, the congressman maintains, there are press reports according to which he met with other paramilitaries in the United States. to make them the same offer.
“If these reports are true, they would raise disturbing questions about whether a foreign actor gained access to a prisoner in US custody for the purpose of corruption, interference in legal proceedings and even bribing someone to commit perjury “, says the legislator in the letter.
Republican Congressman Mario Díaz-Balart.
Díaz-Balart, who is a Congressman for the state of Florida, asks Barr to confirm Cepeda’s sighting and share any records that exist of it, including possible recordings of their conversation that day or other future encounters.
Likewise, it asks him to clarify if there are records of Cepeda’s encounters with other paramilitaries under arrest in the United States.
(Also read: Iván Cepeda announces new resources in the middle of the process against Uribe)
“The reports of these visits raise serious concerns that could have ramifications in the relationship between Colombia and the United States.”, says the legislator after noting that they in turn raise doubts about the conduct of the Barack Obama administration for authorizing the meetings.
SERGIO GÓMEZ MASERI
EL TIEMPO correspondent
Washington
On Twitter: @ sergom68
Read also:
-The reasons of the Prosecutor for not departing from the Uribe case
-‘The process against Álvaro Uribe must start from scratch ‘
-What is internal commotion and why did it cause controversy?
