Uribe denies meeting with paramilitary leader
Former Colombian president Alvaro Uribe released a statement Tuesday denying that he ever met with the ex supreme leader of paramilitary organization AUC Salvatore Mancuso.
In a three-point statement released by Uribe’s lawyers, the ex-president claims that “he never met with outlaws.”
This comes a day after Salvatore Mancuso revealed in court that he had met Uribe when he was governor of Antioquia, although the former paramilitary head refused to elaborate further.
The statement from Uribe’s lawyer Jaime Enrique Granados Peña read: “Mancuso tries, every time he has the opportunity, to associate himself with Uribe… but by full conviction, from the democratic debate of legality he (Uribe) never met with outlaws.”
It is not the first time Uribe has been linked with members of the AUC and in particular its former leader Mancuso.
Mancuso, who is currently being held in a prison in the US, claims that he contributed to Uribe's presidential re-election campaign in 2006, the same year the AUC and other paramilitary groups disbanded.
He also alleges that he held a meeting at Uribe's family owned Uberrimo estate in the department of Cordoba during the former President's three-year gubernatorial term (1995-1997). According to Mancuso, the result of this meeting was the appointment of former Police Commander, Raul Suarez.
Uribe has always denied links to Mancuso and even threatened to him last May for making similar allegations.