ALVARO URIBE

A former rebel leader in Colombia who would undo antinarcotics cooperation with the U.S. is looking to capitalize on the biggest antigovernment unrest in decades and ride it to the presidency next year.

Colombia Extrajudicial Killings Doris Tejada, mother of Oscar Alexander Morales who disappeared on New Year's eve 2007, holds a photo of her son, at a shop in Soacha, Colombia, Thursday, April 8, 2021. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara) (Fernando Vergara)BUCARAMANGA, Colombia — (AP) — Doris Tejada last heard from her son on New Year’s Eve 2007. Military members could claim rewards for presenting results — or bodies — in the fight against armed groups. More than 10,700 people are under investigation in the ordinary justice system, most of them military members, but only 1,740 of them have been convicted, according to a 2019 report of the Prosecutor’s Office. In July, excavations to bury people who died of COVID-19 turned up mass graves in the area where authorities indicated her son had been killed.

More than 10,000 people are under investigation in a case Colombians call the “false positives” scandal.

Doris Tejada last heard from her son on New Year’s Eve 2007. Óscar Alexander had left her home in central Colombia to travel to a city on the border with Venezuela to earn money selling clothes to help his family after losing his job as a surveyor’s assistant. Four years later, Tejada said, she felt a chill of premonition while watching a news report on television in which a group of Colombian mothers blamed the military for the murders of their missing children.

The relationship with Uribe —lionized by Venezuela’s opposition and demonized by Latin America’s left — may come in handy as he seeks to build momentum for politically fraught engagement with Maduro. But he said he is willing to speak to Maduro’s government if allies in Latin America, the European Union and the Biden administration see value in such an approach. Not for nothing, the Trump administration has said the only thing to negotiate with Maduro are the terms of his exit. “The Trump policy was predicated on Florida politics — not getting something done,” Meeks said. In one of those trips, he urged Maduro to release opposition activist Leopoldo Lopez, then in jail for leading anti-government protests.

MIAMI A lawyer for a former Colombian paramilitary leader is asking a U.S. federal court to force Attorney General William Barr to immediately deport the former warlord to Italy after he completed a long drug sentence. The emergency petition was filed Monday in Washington, DC federal court on behalf of Salvatore Mancuso, the former top commander of the United Defense Forces of Colombia, known as the AUC. It comes as Colombia is mounting a last-minute campaign to block Mancuso's removal to Italy after it bungled an extradition request that had to be withdrawn last month. He and his family are terrified with his possible return to Colombia, Mora wrote to ICE officials on March 27 the same day Mancuso completed a 12-year sentence in the U.S. for cocaine trafficking. To expedite the removal, the Mancuso family also offered to purchase tickets for two ICE officials that were required to escort the ex-felon.

The Supreme Court had just opened an investigation into allegations that Uribe had engaged in witness tampering and his supporters were eager to get it closed. The account contrasts with that provided in court by Uribe's defense, which claims the president had little involvement in building the case. But in 2018, the Supreme Court dropped the case and instead began investigating the former president. After Lpezs call to Monsalve, Uribes lawyer showed up at the prison. Cadena, Uribes lawyer, says he doesnt want to put even the least amount of pressure but later states that he has to submit the declaration the next day.

FILE - In this Oct. 8, 2019 file photo, senator and former president Alvaro Uribe arrives to the Supreme Court for questioning in an investigation for witness tampering charges in Bogota, Colombia. Uribe will not be allowed to remain at liberty while the Supreme Court investigates the allegations against him, current President Ivan Duque said in a video address Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2020. In Colombia, former President lvaro Uribe is both. He said the court ruling breaks a long historical tradition in which, even if ex-presidents of the republic were put on trial, none was detained preventively." As president, Uribe was known as an austere hardliner whose U.S.-backed military successes against rebels catapulted him to huge popularity during his 2002-2010 tenure.

Critics and civil rights groups praised the Supreme Court for continuing to pursue the accusations against Uribe in a country where the powerful routinely escape punishment for wrongdoing. Meanwhile, the ex-president's supporters - including Duque, his mentee - decried the court for what they denounced as a political decision. Human Rights Watch Americas director Jos Miguel Vivanco praised the Supreme Court Tuesday. The court is showing that everyone even the most powerful is equal before the law, he said. In 2012, Cepeda made allegations about Uribes paramilitary ties during a debate in Congress.