Bogota, Colombia \u2013 <\/strong>Santiago Uribe, the brother of former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, has been sentenced to 28 years and three months in prison for aggravated homicide and conspiracy to commit a crime while leading a paramilitary group.<\/p>\n In Tuesday\u2019s verdict, a three-judge panel in the northwestern province of Antioquia ruled that, in the early 1990s, Uribe \u201cformed and led an illegal armed group\u201d.<\/p>\n list of 3 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n Under Uribe\u2019s leadership, the group allegedly \u201ccarried out a plan to systematically murder and exterminate people considered undesirable\u201d.<\/p>\n Uribe has denied having any associations with paramilitary groups. His defence team plans to appeal.<\/p>\n The ruling reverses a lower court\u2019s acquittal last year. The case will now pass to Colombia\u2019s Supreme Court for a final verdict.<\/p>\n The conviction is the latest twist in a longstanding criminal investigation into the Uribe family and its alleged paramilitary ties.<\/p>\n Critics have accused Uribe and his brother, the former president, of maintaining ties to groups involved in grave human rights abuses during Colombia\u2019s six-decade-long internal conflict.<\/p>\n Tuesday\u2019s conviction relates to activities that took place on and around the Uribe family\u2019s La Carolina cattle ranch, located in Antioquia.<\/p>\n In its 307-page ruling, the court detailed how the ranch was used as a base for The 12 Apostles, a far-right paramilitary group formed by ranchers in the early 1990s to combat leftist rebels, notably the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).<\/p>\n The court described The 12 Apostles as a \u201cdeath squad\u201d, saying it performed \u201csocial cleansing\u201d by killing \u201cundesirables\u201d including sex workers, drug users, people with mental illnesses and suspected leftist sympathisers.<\/p>\n Not only did the paramilitary group hold meetings at La Carolina, but training and weapons distribution were also carried out on site, according to the ruling.<\/p>\n Those were \u201cacts with which crimes against humanity were committed\u201d, the judges wrote.<\/p>\n Describing Uribe as the leader of The 12 Apostles, the court found him responsible for ordering the murder of Camilo Barrientos, a bus driver who was shot near La Carolina in 1994 for being a suspected rebel collaborator.<\/p>\n Tuesday\u2019s ruling also highlighted collusion between paramilitaries and state security forces, saying the militia \u201cenjoyed the cooperation, through action and inaction, of agents of the State\u201d.<\/p>\n Uribe was first investigated for his involvement with The 12 Apostles in the late 1990s, but the investigation was dropped in 1999 due to a lack of evidence.<\/p>\n Colombian authorities resumed their investigation in 2010, detaining Uribe in 2016 on charges of homicide.<\/p>\n While the trial ended in 2020, the lower court announced its verdict years later, in November 2024. The judge overseeing the case at the time, Jaime Herrera Nino, ruled there was insufficient evidence and acquitted Uribe.<\/p>\n Tuesday\u2019s decision overturns that verdict. Human rights advocates applauded the ruling as a step towards accountability, even at the highest levels of power.<\/p>\n \u201cThe sentence is extremely important,\u201d said Laura Bonilla, a deputy director at Colombia\u2019s Peace and Reconciliation Foundation (Pares). \u201cIt shows the level of penetration that paramilitarism had in Colombian society.\u201d<\/p>\n Gerson Arias, a conflict and security investigator at the Ideas for Peace Foundation, a Colombian think tank, said the complexity of the case reflects the power structures involved.<\/p>\n \u201cParamilitarism was deeply rooted in the upper echelons of society, and therefore clarifying what happened takes years,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is therefore likely that many of the collective things we know about paramilitarism are still pending resolution and discovery.\u201d<\/p>\n The defendant\u2019s brother, former President Alvaro Uribe, led Colombia from 2002 to 2010.<\/p>\n The ex-president himself was found guilty earlier this year of bribing former paramilitary members not to testify to his involvement with them.<\/p>\n The ruling was overturned in October, after a court ruled the evidence was gathered through an unlawful wiretap. It also cited \u201cstructural deficiencies\u201d in the prosecution\u2019s arguments.<\/p>\n The former president remains a powerful figure in right-wing politics in Colombia, and he has pledged to form a coalition to oppose a left-wing government in the 2026 elections.<\/p>\nRecommended Stories <\/h2>\n
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