How the Supreme Court investigated Álvaro Uribe and his squires – Investigación – Justicia

Four days before the presidential first round, lawyer Diego Cadena sent a letter to the Supreme Court in which it was evident that he had already been the subject of an investigation on his role as advocate of the former president Álvaro Uribe Vélez.

He told the magistrate Jose Luis Barceló that although he had three meetings in La Picota Prison with former paramilitary Juan Guillermo Monsalve, it is not true that, following the instructions from Uribe, he had been urging him to withdraw testimony against the senator and his brother Santiago.

At that time, Cadena, a lawyer known to drug traffickers – like Diego Montoya and Diego Pérez, aka Diego Rastrojo-, already knew that his meetings with Monsalve and his wife, Deyanira Gómez, were recorded.

In fact, he also left a meeting that he had with his ex-paramilitary wife on his cell phone.

"Is it true that you record me? I saw several men around the cafeteria …" Cadena told the woman in an audio that he sent her in El TIEMPO at the end of May.

Indeed, assistant magistrate Sandra Yepes already had three months in charge of the investigation and had ordered wiretaps and intercepts, including that of Cadena

Genesis

The Court decided to open the case on February 22, after Reinaldo Villalba, counsel for Senator Iván Cepeda, warned the high court that one of the witnesses against Álvaro and Santiago Uribe was under pressure.

According to him, the ex-paramilitary Juan Guillermo Monsalve received a conversation in which an acquaintance of his, Carlos López, alias Caliche, He says that a "very great man" wanted to talk to him [19659006] Then, in a voice message, in the hands of the Court, 'Caliche & # 39; assured him that the president of the Huila Democratic Center, Álvaro Hernán Prada, approached him. and I asked Monsalve made a video in which he retracted his statements against the Uribe.

That same day, February 21, lawyer Cadena arrived in La Picota late to speak to Monsalve, who refused to receive him. However, the paramilitary told the court that the lawyer had told him that he needed a video immediately in which he would retract his testimony.

The urgency was that he needed his testimony to present him in a reinstatement appeal. that he was going to testify on February 23rd. The action was aimed at opposing the court's decision to refrain from investigating Senator Iván Cepeda, reported by Uribe for allegedly recruiting witnesses against him.

The two episodes were enough for the Court to give him free rein to the previous inquiry

The three visits

"It was established that Álvaro Prada was the member of Congress with whom, apparently, Carlos López was contacted (…) And Cadena tried to contact Monsalve through the intervention of Eduard Pardo Hasche ", indicates the order in which the Court orders that President Uribe and his squire of Huila, Álvaro Prada, are questioned.

] Cadena managed to enter La Picota's visiting room on Thursday, February 22nd. There, he was received by Enrique Pardo Hasche, and a few minutes later, Jaime Lombana and María Mercedes Williamson, the relative of Pardo, arrived at this place. According to the Court, Pardo drove Monsalve to the Cadena table while he was talking about his visit.

During the conversation, says the High Court, Cadena said that he was going on behalf of Álvaro Uribe and asked him to sign a document. ready to bring it before the Court. In return, he offered to re-examine his case for free, asking for better conditions of detention and security.

On this point, the Court warns that Cadena stated that Uribe was aware of his efforts, but never submitted a power he will accredit as his defender.

In addition, he reveals that it could be established that Uribe tried to contact the expara Juan Carlos Sierra, aka El Tuso, to make a video stating in his favor.

Álvaro Uribe and Álvaro Prada, with the help of Cadena, were intended to divert the attention of justice and to make it fall into the error.

At the latter, they even point out to the former prosecutor Hilda Child – treated by "paras" – who would discredit the case against Santiago Uribe in exchange for his transfer to the School of Cavalry, where he is today.

The Defense

But the people involved in the case They tell the story in a different way.
According to Prada and Cadena, it is Monsalve who made contacts by proposing to retract. And, among other things, he sought Uribe's counselor, Vicky Jaramillo.

And Uribe issued a statement last night insisting that everything is a montage against him and that the court refused to listen to it. That's why he chose to hijack, point by point, the charges.

He assures, for example, that Vicky Jaramillo – one of his assistants – informed him that the former paramilitary Monsalve was repenting and wanted to correct the falsehoods against him.

He also states that the representative of Prada also told him Monsalve's intention to retract, but that he realized that everything was a montage in which his lawyer, Jaime Lombana, was sprinkling, without no connection with the case.

The question remains as to whether the case against Uribe goes to the prosecutor's office because he has not formalized his resignation in the Senate, a procedure that has been postponed until August 3. For the time being, the court has called to testify to 31 people, among whom are Vicky Jaramillo, Jaime Lombana, Enrique Pardo and the Sierra Tuso.

Who is the investigating judge?

Sandra Yepes, a lawyer with more than 22 years of service in the Supreme Court, was charged with advancing the process involving former president Álvaro Uribe. Although she resigned from her judicial barrister position, magistrate Jose Luis Barceló asked her to come back and assume the thorny file.

Yepes was part of the group that investigated the "parapolitics", led by Iván Velásquez. Due to the process involving former President Uribe, his security system had to be reinforced by threats.

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