The conviction of his brother for paramilitary activity delivers electoral blow to Álvaro Uribe

Former President Álvaro Uribe, the enduring figurehead of the Colombian right, had entered the nascent election campaign with some momentum. The wind was at his back after his acquittal on appeal of all charges of witness tampering and procedural fraud in the so-called “trial of the century,” which has pitted him against leftist Senator Iván Cepeda for over a decade. Although the cases are separate, this momentum dissipated with the 28-year prison sentence handed down to his younger brother, the businessman and cattle rancher Santiago Uribe, also on appeal, for crimes related to paramilitary activity. Specifically, he was convicted of aggravated homicide and conspiracy to commit a crime while leading a paramilitary group called Los 12 Apóstoles (The 12 Apostles). He was found guilty in the death of Camilo Barrientos, a bus driver from Yarumal, according to the ruling issued Tuesday by the Superior Court of Antioquia.

Last month’s acquittal had breathed new life into Álvaro Uribe’s political project. Since then, he has been leading the right-wing movement, waiting for the blocs and alliances to solidify, and maneuvering to build a grand coalition to counter the left’s ambitions, which are seeking a successor to President Gustavo Petro in the 2026 elections. He had also announced his intention to run again for the Senate in the March legislative elections, which precede the presidential elections and, through simultaneous primaries to choose candidates, effectively become a first round. From his ranch in Rionegro, Antioquia, he has held talks with a wide range of hopefuls and heavyweights in Colombian politics. These include not only members of his own party, the Democratic Center, which has yet to select its own candidate. In recent weeks, he has met with former Defense Minister Juan Carlos Pinzón, journalist Vicky Dávila, and the far-right politician Abelardo de la Espriella, among others. Everyone is hoping to secure his approval.

They have good reason for it. The former president, known for his “firm hand and big heart,” has been a key figure, to a greater or lesser extent, in every major election this century, either directly or indirectly. Next year’s election cycle will be no exception. He is probably the politician who most divides Colombian society and stirs the strongest passions. But now he will have to face the campaign under the long shadow of his family’s ties to paramilitary groups, an accusation his adversaries have always used against him.

These accusations were also behind the “trial of the century,” which cornered him. Although Álvaro Uribe has been criminally charged on numerous occasions, the cases against him had never prospered until, paradoxically, he ended up in the crosshairs of the justice system for a case he himself initiated. It dates back to 2012, when Senator Cepeda attempted to prove Uribe’s alleged ties to paramilitary groups. The former president then denounced Cepeda before the Supreme Court, which is responsible for investigating members of Congress, accusing him of a plot involving false witnesses in Colombian prisons with the sole purpose of framing him.

The investigations took a dramatic turn in 2018 when the Supreme Court declined to prosecute Cepeda. Instead, it ordered an investigation into Uribe, suspecting that he and his lawyers had manipulated witnesses into recanting their testimonies and accusing his political adversary. Uribe even resigned from the Senate to escape the Supreme Court’s jurisdiction, but the case continued its protracted course through the lower courts. He was initially sentenced to 12 years of house arrest, until his acquittal on October 21, celebrated by the right wing, shook up the political landscape.

Along the way, Cepeda, who has a long history of legal battles with the former president, became a villain to Uribe supporters and a hero to the anti-Uribe movement. Today, he is the left’s own presidential candidate and leads in the polls, after having decisively won the primary election of the ruling Historical Pact coalition last month. He was quick to celebrate Tuesday’s conviction of Santiago Uribe as “excellent news for the victims, for truth, and for justice in Colombia.” Another more centrist pre-candidate, former Bogotá mayor Claudia López, who was a prominent researcher of paramilitarism before entering politics, also welcomed the sentence: “There is no debt that goes unpaid, no deadline that isn’t met,” she wrote on her social media. “To all the victims, the displaced farmers, the shattered families, the more than 132,000 mothers and fathers who are still searching for their disappeared children, my love and solidarity always. Justice may be delayed, but it arrives.” The winds of judicial rulings are changing direction.

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