Before Manuel Antonio Merchán, a judge with the Superior Court of Bogotá, had even finished reading the second-instance ruling that acquitted Álvaro Uribe of witness bribery and procedural fraud, several Petristas had already begun to speak out against the decision.
While the ruling that convicted Uribe in the first instance called for respect for the court's decisions and for guaranteeing the safety of the judge and her team, they are now calling the Court's decision political and even questioning the judges' decisions. They are even proposing a justice reform. These are the reactions of President Petro, Gustavo Bolívar; Senator and pre-candidate Iván Cepeda; Senator Isabel Zuleta from Paisa; and other true-blooded Petristas.
President Gustavo Petro's tweets
After Judge Sandra Heredia read the ruling on July 26, President Gustavo Petro posted on his social media:"Let the judges of Colombia feel that whatever the outcome of their rulings, they will have the protection of the democratic government."
And on Tuesday morning, after the Bogotá High Court overturned the first instance ruling against Uribe, he stated:" The Bogotá High Court is repeating history, contradicting the Supreme Court of Justice, and asserting that the wiretap that a Supreme Court judge judicially made of a criminal, in which Uribe's voice appears talking about bribes, is intimacy. This is how the history of paramilitary governance in Colombia is covered up, that is, the history of the politicians who came to power allied with drug trafficking and who unleashed genocide in Colombia."
And he added: "Now Trump, allied with these politicians and with Uribe, will seek to sanction the president who denounced in his life, the alliances between the Colombian political power and paramilitary drug trafficking in Colombia, and he does so with the help of those who helped paramilitarism in the country. In the accusations commission, those involved in the Fomag embezzlement are already looking for a coup d'état. So the time has come for definitions and it is not Trump who defines, it is the people. I will wait for you in the Plaza de Bolívar in Bogotá this Friday to begin the collection of signatures for the constituent power".
Gustavo Bolívar, the President's pawn
After the first instance ruling, the former presidential candidate for the Historic Pact, Gustavo Bolívar, wrote on his X account:"Be serious. It is not the judges, nor the opposition, nor the journalists, nor the government who are to blame for a conviction and a sentence. It is we ourselves with our actions who are to blame for the consequences. According to the judge, Álvaro Uribe twisted the law and that has a consequence. If you do not agree, you have two more instances to have the conviction ratified or prove your innocence".
After the second instance ruling, he posted:"The court has ruled in the second instance, with the exception of a judge who believes that the first instance ruling should be upheld. The rulings of the court are respected, but in this one, several of the Court's jurisprudences are contradicted. There are two instances left: the Supreme Court and divine justice... no one escapes this one ."
The pre-candidate Cepeda
On July 28, Senator Iván Cepeda applauded Judge Heredia's decision:"The day of justice has arrived. Despite immense political and media pressure, Judge Heredia has upheld, perhaps for the first time, the principle that no one can challenge the rule of law and the Constitution with impunity, a fundamental principle of democracy that until now has been the sole responsibility of the highest officials of the State."
And he added: " This authoritarian model has been frustrated in part thanks in large part to the decision and dignity of the judiciary: female judges, female prosecutors, magistrates, female lawyers and victims have known how to defend the dignity of this country."
Now, after the second instance ruling was known, he said that there was a lack of evidentiary assessment and that facts and evidence were ignored:" In the long fight for justice we have learned to wait with all the patience, with all the tranquility and with the democratic spirit that characterizes us. We respect the decision, but we do not share it".
And he added:"In the majority decision, we noted a lack of evidentiary assessment of the legally relevant facts (...) Substantial facts and evidence pointing to the responsibility of Álvaro Uribe were ignored, starting with the fact that the interceptions between Uribe and (Diego) Cadena were excluded."
Cork's reactions
On June 3, in the midst of hearings in which former President Uribe's defense witnesses testified, former minister and pre-candidate Carolina Corcho stated:" We have seen how during the trial against Álvaro Uribe, he has paraded paramilitaries, all kinds of criminals and people convicted of corruption who try to defend him, while slandering Iván Cepeda. Uribe's desperation has reached such a level that he is presenting manipulated witnesses . The truth is coming, and thanks to Cepeda's tireless work, justice will finally come to the powerful."
After reading the ruling in the second instance, he stated:"We do not agree with the acquittal of Álvaro Uribe Vélez, but we respect and abide by the decisions of the court. The victims have the right to appeal to the Supreme Court of Justice. Uribe still faces investigations for crimes against humanity that have not advanced in that same Court, which reaffirms the urgency of a profound reform of the justice system."
Senator Isabel Zuleta
After the first-instance ruling, Senator Isabel Zuleta stated:"The legality of the wiretaps is an act of justice. The defense tried to make us believe they were illegal, but the only illegal thing was the crime Uribe committed, and that's why he must answer. #UribeGuilty."
With the second instance ruling: "This is a political decision! We regret that justice is not coming to the victims, and that the judicial branch does not recognize the evidence of crimes and excuses itself with the right to privacy. It is a wrong message that the law is only for those with a ruana. History will NOT absolve Uribe."
Senator Hernández's gray day
On August 3, Senator Esmeralda Hernández of the Historic Pact wrote:"They call a judicial decision that doesn't favor them because it led to Uribe's imprisonment 'political bias.' The thing is, the Democratic Center never imagined that justice would touch their untouchable boss. Before, they defended justice; now they attack it. And yet, they call themselves democrats."
And this Tuesday he stated: " Today is a gray day for Colombia. They may acquit Álvaro Uribe, but they will never be able to erase history: that of the 6,402 false positives, the wiretapping, the yidispolitics and the multiple crimes against humanity that marked their governments. Once again, justice fails the victims and sides with those in power."
