International
The Colombian Prosecutor’s Office will bring former President Álvaro Uribe to trial for bribery of witnesses
A Colombian prosecutor filed an accusation on Tuesday against former President Álvaro Uribe “as an alleged determiner of the crimes of bribery of witnesses in criminal proceedings and procedural fraud,” which indicates that he will be called to trial, the Prosecutor’s Office reported.
The accusation was presented by the first prosecutor delegated to the Supreme Court of Justice Gilberto Villareal, who took over the case on January 16.
This case dates back to 2012 when Uribe sued Iván Cepeda, senator of the left-wing Party Polo Democrático Alternativo (PDA), who at that time was preparing a complaint in Congress against him for alleged ties to paramilitarism, for alleged ties.
However, the Supreme Court of Justice decided not to open an investigation against the congressman and, instead, initiated a lawsuit against the former president for manipulation of witnesses.
According to sources of the Prosecutor’s Office, from the physical evidence and evidence, it was concluded that there were reasons to accuse Uribe, who was president of Colombia between 2002 and 2010.
“The decision of the delegated prosecutor was adopted after two requests for pre-exclusion from different prosecutors that were rejected by the criminal judges of the competent circuit,” the first in April 2022 and the second in May 2023.
The Prosecutor’s Office added that once the judicial distribution process is completed, “the hearing to formalize the accusation will be held, on the date and time set by the judiciary.”
Upon assuming the case, prosecutor Villarreal had 90 days to file the accusation against Uribe, a deadline that will be met on April 15.
The accusation of bribery in criminal proceedings has to do with the alleged payment of bribes to Carlos Enrique Vélez and Juan Guillermo Monsalve, who are imprisoned in the prisons of Palmira and La Picota in Bogotá, respectively, as well as a woman identified as Eurídice Cortés, to benefit the former president with his statements.
While the procedural fraud involves all the irregularities of the case.
Despite the accusation, Uribe will be able to respond to the process in freedom since that is usual in all cases and the deprivation of liberty is an exceptional measure, according to the Prosecutor’s Office.
Left-wing senator Iván Cepeda, recognized as a victim in the process against Álvaro Uribe for bribery of witnesses and procedural fraud, assured on Tuesday that the decision of the Prosecutor’s Office to call the former president to trial is “fair.”
“Today comes to the end a decision that we consider to be fair,” Cepeda told journalists, also assuring that former President Uribe “has the full right to due process, to defense, but also we have the truth and justice to prevail.”
International
China shows at the UN its “condemnation” of Israel for the “violation of Iran’s sovereignty”
The Chinese ambassador to the United Nations, Fu Cong, showed the “condemnation” of his country against the “violation of the sovereignty, security and territorial integrity of Iran” after the air attack launched by Israel against multiple targets in that country, the official newspaper Diario del Pueblo reports this Saturday.
That media echoes Fu’s speech to the UN Security Council on Friday, in which he demanded that Israel “immediately stop all its military actions.”
“China (…) opposes the expansion of conflicts, and is deeply concerned about the serious consequences that may arise from Israel’s actions. The intensification of regional tensions does not interest any of the parties involved,” said the Chinese emissary.
Beijing called on Tel Aviv and Tehran to “resolve their disputes through political and diplomatic means, and maintain peace and stability at the regional level jointly.”
In Fu’s view, the Israeli attack will have a “negative impact” on the negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program: “China has always been committed to the peaceful resolution of the Iranian nuclear issue through dialogue and consultations, and opposes the use of force, illegal unilateral sanctions and armed attacks on peaceful nuclear facilities.”
This Friday, China had already expressed its willingness to “play a constructive role” to curb the escalation of tensions and facilitate conciliation, in line with its traditional position of active neutrality in the region’s conflicts.
The Israeli attack, which according to Tehran caused dozens of deaths, including senior military commanders and at least six nuclear scientists, targeted key facilities such as the uranium enrichment plant in Natanz. Numerous civilian casualties were also reported.
Israel justified the offensive by claiming that the Iranian regime is secretly developing a program to manufacture nuclear weapons.
For his part, Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, promised a “severe response” and assured that the attack would reveal the “evil nature” of Israel.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres also expressed concern about the bombing, at a time when Iran and the US The United States is holding talks about the Iranian nuclear program.
International
Donald Trump’s government pauses its program of indiscriminate raides against migrants
The government of US President Donald Trump has decided to pause its campaign of discretionary roundings against migrants in certain areas due to its apparent concern about the growing unpopularity of these methods, according to The New York Times newspaper on Friday.
According to an email to which the newspaper has had access and the confirmation of US officials, the Executive has ordered the Immigration and Customs Control Service (ICE) to pause the beatings that affect the agricultural industry and the hospitality industry.
The spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, Tricia McLaughlin, confirmed in a statement that “the president’s instructions” will be obeyed and the portfolio will also continue to “work to get the worst illegal foreign criminals out of the streets of the United States.”
The decision points out that this campaign of discretionary arrests to try to deport large-scale immigrants is harming industries and electoral constituencies whose support Trump wants to retain for next year’s legislative elections.
The new instructions were transmitted to ICE in an email sent last Thursday asking that “all investigations/law enforcement operations be suspended in work centers in the agricultural sector (including aquaculture and meat packing plants), restaurants and hotels.”
These new guidelines come in turn after more than a week of intense protests in Los Angeles against this immigration policy and that Trump himself admitted that the raids seem to be affecting the agricultural sector, which in states like California, where beatings have intensified, depend almost exclusively on immigrant labor.
Since his return to the White House in January, Trump has implemented an aggressive policy of hard hand against immigration and as a sample of his Cabinet officials recently held a meeting with the ICE leadership to order them to carry out 3,000 arrests a day, a mandate that seems to be behind the intensification of the raids.
International
Trump says he knew “everything” about the attack on Iran and assures that the dialogue remains open
US President Donald Trump said on Friday that Washington “known everything” about the Israeli attack on Iran and that the dialogue on Tehran’s nuclear program “is not dead.”
“We knew everything and I tried to avoid Iran all this humiliation and death. I tried hard to avoid it because I would have loved to see an agreement,” Trump said in an interview with Reuters.
The US president insisted on what he wrote today about the attack on social networks, where he said he gave an ultimatum of 60 days to Tehran to reach an agreement.
“We knew practically everything. We knew enough to give Iran 60 days to reach an agreement and today it is already 61 days,” he explained in the interview, in which he said he did not know what the current situation of the Iranian nuclear program is after the attack launched by Israel, which also ended the lives of key military leaders of the Persian country.
Regarding the dialogue between the US and Iran about the nuclear program of the ayatollahs, Trump assured that “he is not dead”, that “an agreement is still possible” and also recalled that on Sunday a sixth round of dialogue is scheduled in Muscat (Oman) that they consider is now in the air.
“We have a meeting with them on Sunday. Now, I’m not sure if that meeting will take place, but we have a meeting with them on Sunday,” he said.
The United States and Iran have held five rounds of talks on the Iranian nuclear program since April, with Washington demanding that Tehran discard its capabilities both to manufacture an atomic bomb and to enrich uranium, something that the ayatollahs considered unacceptable.
Both Israel and Trump himself had warned of possible preventive attacks on the Persian country due to this refusal by Iran.
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