Brother of Colombian ex-president arrested

as alleged death squad leader

Santiago Uribe has been detained on charges that he created and led a death squad known as the
Twelve Apostles in the 1990s
Sibylla Brodzinsky in Bogot
Monday 29 February 2016 15.57EST

The brother of Colombias former president lvaro Uribe has been arrested on charges that
he created and led a death squad known as the Twelve Apostles, which was responsible for
dozens of murders in the province of Antioquia.
Santiago Uribe was arrested on Monday in the upscale neighbourhood of El Poblado despite
eorts by his security detail to block his detention.
Uribe, the younger brother of the former president, has denied that he was involved in
either the death squad or the murders that witnesses said were planned at the Uribe family
ranch in the town of Yarumal in the 1990s.
Supporters of ex-president Uribe, who is now a senator for the opposition Centro
Democrtico Party, decried the arrest. This is a political prosecution that are part of the
macabre objectives of a government that is complicit with criminals, Paloma Valencia, also
of the Centro Democrtico, told local radio.
However Sen. Ivn Cepeda, of the leftwing Polo Democrtico, who has written several
books about the Uribe familys alleged links to paramilitaries, said it merely showed that
no one is above the law.
The main witness against Uribe is a former police ocer Juan Carlos Meneses who is under
investigation for participating in the crimes attributed to the Twelve Apostles and who has
identied Uribe as one of the leaders of the group which aimed to neutralize leftwing
guerrillas in the region.
Meneses has testied that when he arrived in the region as local police chief in 1994 he was
obliged to collaborate with the group that kidnapped and forcibly disappeared suspected
guerrillas, thieves and kidnappers.
The former police major said Uribe, who is a cattle rancher and horse breeder, ran the death
squad from a ranch called La Carolina using short-wave radios. Meneses said he once saw
15 uniformed paramilitaries with AR-15 and AK-47 ries at the ranch doing physical

training on an obstacle course.

Uribes defence team has argued the accusations were part of a plot against him and have
accused the former police ocer of false testimony. Meneses, who surrendered to
Colombian authorities after living abroad said he had no evidence linking the former
president to the death squad.
However testimony from former paramilitary leaders, such as Salvatore Mancuso who is
currently serving a 16 year sentence in the United States, has bolstered the case against
Santiago Uribe.
The former president has also been dogged by allegations that he also had ties to rightwing
paramilitary groups which expanded their control in Antioquia when he was governor of
the province. However, he denies the allegation and no direct evidence of links has been
found.
In October the attorney general asked the Supreme Court to investigate whether Alvaro
Uribe was linked to the massacre of at least 15 people in 1997 in the town of El Aro, when
he was governor, based on testimony of former paramilitary leaders who said he was
involved.
Regional paramilitary groups rose up in the late 1980s and early 1990s as private armies
nanced by large landowners and drug trackers to ght against extortion and kidnapping
by leftist guerrillas. After a nationwide expansion they came together in 1997 under the
umbrella of the United Self Defence Forces of Colombia (AUC) and became a major military
and political force in Colombias long-running conict.
More than 30,000 AUC ghters demobilised between 2003 and 2006, under Alvaro Uribes
rst term as president, and most of its leaders were extradited to the United States on drug
tracking charges.
The former partner of another Uribe brother was extradited to the United States and
convicted in 2014 on drug related charges. Dolly Cifuentes, alias la Menor, is serving a
nearly ve-year sentence for cocaine smuggling. She has two children with Jaime Alberto
Uribe.
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Topics
Colombia Americas
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