Through the X account of the United States Embassy in Colombia, a statement was shared by Christopher Landau, Undersecretary of State in the Donald Trump administration, who spoke out in favor of former President Álvaro Uribe, after the conviction against the president that was announced this Monday for the crimes of witness bribery and procedural fraud.
“One of the most troubling trends of our time is the use of the judicial system as a weapon against political opponents. Our political differences should be resolved at the ballot box, not in the courts,” reads the statement from the U.S. government official, reposted by the embassy.
-@DeputySecState: One of the worrying trends of our time is the use of the judicial system as a weapon against political opponents. Our political differences should be resolved at the ballot box, not in the courts. Obviously, this doesn't mean that… https://t.co/xWFUt3EVoH
— US Embassy Bogota (@USEmbassyBogota) July 29, 2025
He then openly refers to the former president's case."Obviously, this does not mean that no one should enjoy immunity from the neutral application of the law, but prosecutors and judges must ensure that the law is applied neutrally to political adversaries. Unfortunately, this has not happened in the great nation of Colombia," Landau states.
"That country has a proud tradition of judicial independence, for which many judges have paid with their lives, but that tradition has now been tarnished by yesterday's ruling against former President Álvaro Uribe. As a friend of Colombia, I hope and trust that the Colombian appeals courts will put an end to this procedural and judicial abuse," the statement concludes.
This is not the first statement from the United States government regarding the case of former President Álvaro Uribe. Yesterday, Monday the 28th, when the ruling was announced, Donald Trump's own Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, rejected the initial conviction against the former president.
“Former Colombian President Uribe’s only crime has been to fight tirelessly and defend his homeland. The instrumentalization of the Colombian judiciary by radical judges has set a worrying precedent,” the head of US diplomacy said through the social network X.
With the statement by Undersecretary Christopher Landau, rumors are growing that the United States could prepare some type of sanction against Colombia due to the conviction against Uribe, but that it would wait until a ruling is made in the other pending judicial instances. This, since the Trump administration did the same with Brazil when the precautionary measure was imposed on former President Jair Bolsonaro.
