A man holds a sign that reads "Uribe to jail" in Bogota on July 28, 2025, after a court found Colombian former president Alvaro Uribe guilty of witness tampering. RAUL ARBOLEDA / AFP
A Colombian court on Monday, July 28, found ex-president Alvaro Uribe guilty of witness tampering in a case that saw him become the South American country's first-ever former head of state convicted of a crime. The 73-year-old, who was president from 2002 to 2010, was found guilty of trying to persuade witnesses to lie for him in a separate investigation. Uribe risks a 12-year prison sentence in the highly politicized case. As the judge started reading out her verdict, Uribe – who attended the trial virtually – sat shaking his head.
The matter dates to 2012, when Uribe accused leftist senator Ivan Cepeda before the Supreme Court of hatching a plot to falsely link him to right-wing paramilitary groups involved in Colombia's long-standing armed conflict. The court decided against prosecuting Cepeda and turned its sights on his claims against Uribe instead.
Paramilitary groups emerged in the 1980s in Colombia to fight Marxist guerrillas that had taken up arms against the state two decades earlier with the stated goal of combating poverty and political marginalization, especially in rural areas. A plethora of armed groups adopted cocaine as their main source of income, the genesis of a deadly rivalry for resources and trafficking routes that continues to this day.
