Former President Álvaro Uribe Vélez stopped President Gustavo Petro in his tracks after the president dedicated a long post to him on his X account, in which he spoke about the origins of paramilitarism in Antioquia and suggested he appear before the JEP.

Petro suggested that his predecessor in the Casa de Nariño could go to that peace tribunal to tell his truth about the violence that Colombia has experienced, an assertion that angered the former president.

“Uribe Vélez can go to the JEP and deliver to Colombia a truth that, although painful, can help to definitively get out of violence,” Petro wrote on his X account.

Uribe Vélez responded to that statement by telling him that he “will have some honor to make that suggestion” when he renounces the pardon or even when he agrees to take a toxicology test, among other demands.

“When you renounce the pardon for which I voted, clarify the money you received in dark pockets, take a toxicological exam, and when Juan Manuel Santos asks the Americans to publish the Odebrecht dossier, you will have at least some honor to even be able to make that suggestion,” Uribe Vélez told him.

This episode of tensions erupted just one day after former President Uribe was convicted of bribery in criminal proceedings and procedural fraud, charges for which the sentence imposed by the courts will be announced next Friday, August 1.

The Colombian president took advantage of the fact that the former president's legal situation has been one of the main topics of conversation in the country. He made the most of it to make remarks such as,"After the change in the judicial investigative body, which the former president and former senator Uribe himself brought about, he has been defeated in the first instance by the ordinary courts, in the witness falsification case, of which I was a victim and did not prosecute."

In that publication by X, he also pointed out that his duty as head of state is to protect the former president, although he did not miss the opportunity to link him to episodes of the armed conflict.

“It is my responsibility to protect Álvaro Uribe Vélez, his family, and his assets, as president, and I will. However, this foreign newspaper, El País, is right. The underlying issue is the origin and end of the Metro Bloc of paramilitaries that emerged in San Roque, on the Guacharacas ranch, and on the way to Puerto Berrio, in the Magdalena Medio region of Antioquia,” Petro wrote. Opinion leaders from the Democratic Center came to the former president's defense.

Pte Petro

— Álvaro Uribe Vélez (@AlvaroUribeVel) July 29, 2025