(CN) — The former president of Colombia is suing a convicted drug trafficker and retired paramilitary leader after he accused the prominent politician of corruption and murder.
The claims were outlined in a complaint filed Jan. 17 in the 11th Judicial Circuit of Florida.
Álvaro Uribe, who served as president of Colombia from 2002 to 2010, accuses Salvatore Mancuso of defaming him in statements he made before the Special Jurisdiction for Peace, a transitional justice system in Colombia tasked with investigating and prosecuting crimes committed during the nation’s decadeslong political conflict.
Mancuso testified by video from a federal detention facility in Georgia, where he awaits extradition after serving 12 years in prison for his role in an international drug trafficking conspiracy.
Mancuso confessed he was responsible for hundreds of murders, kidnappings and massacres as second-in-command of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, a right-wing paramilitary group active in the 1990s and 2000s. But he claimed the group's efforts were supported by the country’s business, military and political elite, including Uribe.
As governor of Antioquia, Mancuso claimed Uribe helped plan a 1997 massacre in the village of El Aro that left 15 people dead and displaced hundreds of others. In 2003, the president participated in a plot to torture and kill Eudaldo Leon Diaz Salgado, the mayor of a small town, Mancuso said.
Mancuso’s group provided financial support for Uribe’s presidential campaigns in 2002 and 2006, he said. The group further “directly intervened” in the presidential elections in 1998 and 2002.
Uribe denied the allegations in a post on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter), but Mancuso’s claims were reported widely in the media, according to the lawsuit.
The president accused Mancuso of lying to reduce his prison sentence when he is extradited back to Colombia.
“The defendant’s inflammatory ‘testimony’ is not intended to help discover the truth or actual facts or to help educate readers and views to come to their own informed decisions, but is intended to aggravate, scare and trigger people,” Uribe said.
Uribe is represented by attorney Alexander Alfano of Coral Gables, Florida.
Alfano did not respond to a request for comment.
Follow @SteveGarrisonPC
Subscribe to Closing Arguments
Sign up for new weekly newsletter Closing Arguments to get the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and hot cases and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world.
Additional Reads
-
Head of Vietnam’s parliament resigns amid corruption probe April 26, 2024 -
