Alvaro Uribe, Ex-President of Colombia, Is Convicted of Bribery

Mr. Uribe, a towering figure in Colombian politics, was accused of trying to bribe a former paramilitary to retract testimony damaging to him.

Álvaro Uribe, Colombia’s conservative former president who shaped the country’s politics more than anyone over the past 25 years, was found guilty on Monday of bribery in criminal proceedings and procedural fraud. It was the first major criminal conviction of a former Colombian leader.

Mr. Uribe was accused of working with a lawyer in an unsuccessful effort to bribe a former paramilitary to retract testimony that damaged him. The paramilitary had said that Mr. Uribe, 73, founded and financed a paramilitary group in the 1990s, during the country’s long and bloody internal conflict.

The ruling, by Judge Sandra Heredia of a lower circuit court in Bogotá, is likely to further divide the nation, which has long debated the legacy of Mr. Uribe’s role in the conflict. As president from 2002 to 2010 he pursued an aggressive military campaign against the country’s leftist rebel groups, significantly weakening the largest group and bringing a measure of security the nation had not seen in years.

But critics say his government’s tactics led to human rights violations against civilians and accused him of supporting right-wing paramilitary groups, for which they argue he should be held accountable.

The case has stretched on for 13 tumultuous years. Mr. Uribe has stated that he will appeal a decision that goes against him, a process that could take years and is likely to end at the Supreme Court.

This month, he called the case against him an “unjust judicial process.” He had argued that some judges were biased against him and illegally tapped his phone as a part of the investigation, but Judge Heredia found that the wiretapping was legal.

Some legal experts and critics of Mr. Uribe have said that the process is evidence that the Colombian legal system is working to hold powerful people accountable after years in which political figures have escaped justice. Among them is Francisco Bernate, a criminal law expert at Rosario University in Bogotá, who said the trial showed the strength of Colombia’s legal system.

“It is an independent justice system, a justice system that does not act based on political calculations,” Mr. Bernate said. “Former President Uribe is a political figure, perhaps the most important one of this century in Colombia, and of course he makes his political interpretations, but the reality is that this is a strictly legal case.”

But Mr. Uribe’s supporters, including some Republicans in the United States, have said the system is being weaponized against the conservative former leader.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio also criticized the trial on X.

“Former Colombian President Uribe’s only crime has been to tirelessly fight and defend his homeland,” he wrote. “The weaponization of Colombia’s judicial branch by radical judges has now set a worrisome precedent.”

The Trump administration recently imposed a 50 percent tariff on all imports from Brazil, partly in retaliation for what the American president has called a “witch hunt” against another conservative former leader, Brazil’s ex-president Jair Bolsonaro, who is facing trial for attempting a coup.

While Mr. Uribe has allies in Washington, he does not have the same close relationship with Mr. Trump as does Mr. Bolsonaro.

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