International
The Colombian Prosecutor’s Office formally accuses former President Álvaro Uribe of three crimes
The Colombian Prosecutor’s Office accused Álvaro Uribe before a judge this Friday for the crimes of bribery, procedural fraud and bribery in criminal proceedings, so the former president becomes accused in the case of alleged bribery of witnesses and procedural fraud.
It is the first time that the Prosecutor’s Office has filed charges against Uribe (2002-2010), which were accepted by Judge 44 of criminal knowledge of Bogotá, Sandra Liliana Heredia, who ruled that “from this moment (the former president) acquires the status of accused.”
According to the judge’s decision, the process against Uribe begins formally and if guilty the head of the Democratic Center can be sentenced to between 6 and 12 years in prison.
The accusation comes after the togada denied the request for the nullity of the process against the former president by considering it “absolutely inappropriate,” so “its rejection is imposed flatly, a decision against which no appeal is appropriate.”
Likewise, the judge accepted as victims of the case Senator Iván Cepeda and former attorneys general Jorge Perdomo and Eduardo Montealegre, as well as Deyanira Gómez, former wife of paramilitary Juan Guillermo Monsalve, involved in the case.
These two decisions were celebrated by Cepeda’s lawyer, Reinaldo Villalba, who assured that “they are decisions that recognize not only the condition of the victims but the need for the victims to have access to justice and there defend and claim their rights.”
The prosecutor who leads the case, Gilberto Villarreal, accused Uribe as “determinator of the successive homogeneous contest of three bribery crimes in criminal proceedings” because for “the benefit of himself or a third party he gives or promises a utility to a person who witnessed a criminal act to refrain from running to testify or to totally or partially miss the truth.”
He also accused him of “sucessive homogeneous contest of two courts of procedural fraud,” that is, because “by any fraudulent means it misleads a public servant to obtain a sentence, resolution or administrative act contrary to the law.”
Also as a “determinator of the crime of bribery” because he delivered or promised “money or other utility to a witness so that he totally or partially lacks the truth or the street in his testimony.”
This case dates back to 2012 when Uribe, who was a senator, sued Cepeda for alleged manipulation of witnesses, who at that time was preparing a complaint in Congress against him for alleged links with paramilitarism.
Contrary to what was expected by Uribe, the Supreme Court of Justice did not open an investigation against the left-wing congressman and, instead, initiated a trial against Uribe for manipulation of witnesses.
The accusation of bribery 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.
Monsalve, a former paramilitary, assured that there was a whole strategy to approach him and convince him to testify against Cepeda.
Uribe has been saying for years that it is a case against him that has political motives and that lacks evidence.
Uribe resigned his senator’s seat in August 2020 to stop being assigned and that his case was passed to ordinary justice and then the Prosecutor’s Office decided that there was no evidence to prosecute him judicially.
That is why he requested up to two occasions the preclusion of the case, which was denied both by the courts of first instance presented and by the High Court of Bogotá.
However, prosecutor Villarreal took over the case on January 16 and on April 9 he affirmed that based on the physical evidence and evidence he determined that there were reasons to accuse Uribe, which were the conclusions of the judges when denying the pre-preclusion.
International
Biden, Trump campaigns set rules for first pre-election debate on CNN
Campaign committees for U.S. President Joe Biden and businessman Donald Trump agreed on Saturday to the rules for their first debate ahead of the November elections, scheduled for June 27 and hosted by CNN: it will last ninety minutes, be audience-free, and feature muteable microphones.
CNN had indicated since its announcement in May that the debate would proceed without an audience, which is Biden’s preferred format.
It was also disclosed that both candidates’ campaign teams accepted a series of other provisions, including the use of identical podiums and the implementation of muteable microphones to enforce speaking times.
“The microphones will be silenced throughout the debate, except for the candidate who has the speaking turn,” CNN specified, adding that hosts Jake Tapper and Dana Bash “will use all available tools” to “enforce the timing and ensure a civilized discussion.”
The debate will feature 90 minutes of discussion with just two commercial breaks during which campaign teams cannot interact with the candidates, as specified.
Pre-written notes on the set will also be prohibited, but “the candidates will receive a pen, notepad, and a water bottle” for the event.
Biden and former President Trump (2017-2021) agreed to debate twice before the presidential elections on November 5, on June 27 and September 10. The second debate will be organized by ABC News.
International
Florida declares a state of emergency due to severe floods in five southern counties
The Government of Florida declared a state of emergency on Thursday in five southern counties where severe floods have occurred due to the torrential rains that began last Tuesday.
The governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, today issued the order covering Miami-Dade, Broward, Collier, Lee and Sarasota counties, where for now there have been no victims but mainly road flooding, putting drivers and their families at risk.
The state government stressed that tropical humidity will continue to cause heavy scattered rains in southern Florida and that the flood alert will remain in effect throughout this region and the Keys of Florida, a succession of islets in the extreme south of the state.
These storms have also caused tornadoes, highway cuts, suspension of classes and flight cancellations, about 200 this Thursday, at the airports of Miami and Fort Lauderdale, according to the Flightaware platform.
Several areas in the vicinity of Fort Lauderdale airport were impacted, as well as Hallandale Beach, Dania Beach and Lauderdale Lakes, where floods forced the cancellation of transport services.
Although the storm subsided this Thursday, several sectors remained underwater, including Hallandale Beach, whose residents today asked for more pumps to evacuate it. In addition, several vehicles remained stranded and some were even submerged.
Meanwhile, the Brightline train had to temporarily close its stations in Miami and Aventura, the two further south, and several universities and schools have suspended classes.
The mayor of Miami-Dade, Daniella Levine Cava, declared a local state of emergency on Wednesday night, with immediate effect.
International
The IMF approves the disbursement of another 800 million dollars for Argentina
The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved the eighth revision of the agreement with Argentina, which allows an immediate disbursement of approximately 800 million dollars for the country.
The financial agency indicated in a statement that this disbursement “will support the efforts of the authorities to restore stability and strengthen Argentina’s external viability.”
The total disbursements made under the Fund’s agreement with Argentina amounts to about 41.4 billion dollars.
The IMF stressed that, when completing the review, “the Executive Board considered that the program was firmly on track, with all the quantitative performance criteria until the end of March 2024 met with margins.”
“Non-compliance exementions for a new exchange rate restriction and multiple exchange practices were also approved in the context of some relaxation of the restrictions on the payment of dividends.”
To maintain solid progress, according to the IMF, “it is necessary to improve the quality of fiscal adjustment, to initiate steps towards an improved monetary and exchange policy framework, implement the structural agenda.”
Likewise, “continue efforts to support the most vulnerable, expand political support and ensure agility in the formulation of policies.”
In March 2022, the then Government of the Peronist Alberto Fernández (2019-2023) signed an agreement with the IMF to refinance loans for about 45 billion dollars that the agency had granted to Argentina in 2018, during the presidency of the conservative Mauricio Macri (2015-2019).
The pact includes quarterly revisions such as the one now surpassed on the level of compliance with demanding goals in terms of fiscal discipline, accumulation of monetary reserves and limits on monetary issuance.
The approval for new disbursements to Argentina by the agency depends on the fulfillment of those goals and the approval of each review, funds that, in turn, the South American country uses to cancel its debt to the entity, which amounted to 40,899 million dollars at the end of 2023.
On Tuesday, the Argentine Minister of Economy, Luis Caputo, said that he will negotiate a new program with the IMF after the eighth review of the organization: “From there we will begin to negotiate a new program with them,” he said.
The IMF had highlighted in a statement last May that Argentina reached this eighth review with a “stabilization plan” where it could reach “the first quarterly fiscal surplus in sixteen years,” a “rapid fall in inflation” and “a strong reduction in sovereign risk.”
Argentina had passed this last review in May, but that step had to go through a formal procedure and be approved by the Executive Board of the IMF, something that took place this Thursday, to receive the 800 million.
This eighth review corresponds to the first quarter of 2024, a period marked by the drastic change in economic policy in Argentina after the arrival of Javier Milei to the presidency in December and the implementation of a severe adjustment plan to recover the fiscal surplus this year.
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