| PRESS RELEASE
FROM THE HOUSE OF NARIÑO
Bogotá, 1 aug. (SNE).- What follows is the press release
published by the House of Nariño, regarding recent publications
in the United States about Colombian President, Álvaro Uribe
Vélez. It includes the State Department phone number, through
which journalists can request the official position of the Government
of the United States:
PRESS RELEASE
Today, the Colombian Presidency has knowledge about information
in the hands of some media mass regarding a document from the Defense
Intelligence Agency of the United States, written in September
1991. That document was published according to the Freedom of Information
Act.
The document suggests that Álvaro Uribe Vélez had,
at that time, relations with drug traffickers and the Medellín
Cartel, that his father was murdered because of his relations with
narcotics traffickers, that he was a personal friend of Pablo Escobar,
and that he participated in Escobar´s campaign to the Colombian
House of Representatives as an assistant parliamentary of Jairo
Ortega; and that as a Senator, Uribe expressed opinions against
the extradition.
THE DOCUMENT STATES THAT IT IS INFORMATION NOT FINALLY EVALUATED.
Regarding this, the Colombian Presidency informs:
1) This information is the same that, at
its time, was part of the attacks against President Álvaro Uribe Vélez
as a presidential candidate during his campaign.
2) In 1991, Álvaro Uribe Vélez,
at the time Senator, was in the United States participating in
an academic program at
Harvard University, while in Colombia, the Constitution Assembly
was in session. During that period, the mandate of the Congress
was revoked.
3) Álvaro Uribe Velez has never
made businesses out of Colombia. As he explained to the media
during his campaign, when
the same issues were debated, he only had two foreign bank accounts:
one in a Boston Bank, related to Harvard University, and another
one in Oxford, England, while he was in that University in 1998.
Uribe does not posses goods outside Colombia.
4) Álvaro Uribe Sierra, the President's
father, was murdered by the 5th Farc front on June 14th of 1983,
when he opposed to
a kidnapping attempt. Uribe Sierra confronted his kidnappers. In
the confrontation, his son Santiago were injured.
5) Álvaro Uribe Vélez was elected Senator three
times: 1986, 1990, and 1991 as a member of the movement "Directorio
Liberal de Antioquia-Sector Democrático". (Jairo Ortega,
Escobar´s top of the list, was elected to the House of Representatives
by a different movement in 1982).
6) Senator Uribe's position regarding the
extradition appears in registers of the Colombian Congress from
1989, the only position
concerning this issue during his development as Senator. He reiterated
this position in 2002 as a presidential candidate in several interviews
to the newspapers El Tiempo and El Espectador, of Bogotá,
and to Radio Caracol: "After second round, unfortunately,
the House of Representatives included that monkey (in the Colombian
congress, a weird article included in a bill) asking Colombians
to reject or not reject the extradition in the Congress elections
of march 1990" (...) "I said that it was highly inconvenient
to plan a referendum on the same day of the elections because we
had the risk of drug traffickers making pressure over those elections.
I said that an alternative should be to finally execute the referendum
after the elections day and after the presidential election to
avoid pressures". (El Tiempo, March 23, 2003)
7) During his Government, Álvaro
Uribe has authorized the extradition of more than 170 persons
to different countries to
be judged for drug trafficking and other crimes, including money
laundry.
8) As President, he opposes to modify the actual extradition mechanism.
IN THE UNITED STATES YOU CAN REACH THE STATE DEPARTMENT:
ROBER ZIMMERMAN:
TEL. 202 3024195
202 6474000
OR THE PRESS OFFICE OF THE STATE DEPARTMENT:
202 6477512
202 6472492
Bogotá, August 1, 2004
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