Truthout is an indispensable resource for activists, movement leaders and workers everywhere. Please make this work possible with a quick donation.

Former Colombian President Álvaro Uribe was recently sentenced to 12 years of house arrest after he was found guilty of bribing imprisoned members of paramilitary groups to coax them into retracting damaging testimony exposing Uribe’s ties to U.S.-backed, right-wing paramilitary groups. Uribe was a staunch U.S. ally who ruled Colombia from 2002 to 2010, during which time there were thousands of extrajudicial killings of civilians, who were then purposely mislabeled as rebel fighters in what became known as the “false positives” scandal. “Álvaro Uribe is a very powerful figure. He is the leading figure of the far right in Colombia and, I would say, a leading figure of the far right in the Americas,” says leftist Colombian Senator Iván Cepeda. His own father, leading leftist politician Manuel Cepeda, was assassinated in 1994 by right-wing paramilitaries working with the government.

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman.

Get the news you want, delivered to your inbox every day.

We turn now to Colombia, where the former President Álvaro Uribe was recently sentenced to 12 years of house arrest, after he was found guilty of witness tampering and bribery. Uribe is the first former president of Colombia to be found guilty of a crime, convicted of bribing imprisoned members of paramilitary groups to coax them into retracting damaging testimony exposing his ties to U.S.-backed, right-wing paramilitary groups.

Uribe was a staunch U.S. ally who ruled Colombia from 2002 to 2010. During Uribe’s presidency, there were thousands of extrajudicial killings of civilians, who were then purposely mislabeled as rebel fighters in what became known as the “false positives” scandal. The killings took place between 2004 to ’08 as the U.S.-backed Colombian military intensified its crackdown against FARC, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.

To discuss all this, Democracy Now!’s Juan González and I spoke last week with the leftist Colombian Senator Iván Cepeda in Bogotá, who spearheaded efforts looking into Uribe’s collaboration with paramilitaries. Senator Cepeda’s father, the leading leftist politician Manuel Cepeda, was assassinated in 1994. One note: This interview took place before Cepeda’s colleague, the Colombia Senator Miguel Uribe — no relation to the former president — died two months after he was shot at a campaign rally in the capital Bogotá. We spoke to Senator Iván Cepeda last Wednesday.

AMY GOODMAN: It’s an honor to have you with us, Iván Cepeda. If you can talk about the significance of what has happened to Uribe right now, his conviction and sentencing, and what it means for a global audience?

SEN. IVÁN CEPEDA: [translated] First of all, I’d like to thank Amy Goodman, Juan González and Democracy Now!

I would say........

© Truthout