Former Colombian senator seeks Costa Rican asylum (Lead)
April 23rd, 2008 - 7:59 pm ICT by admin
Bogota, April 23 (IANS) Former Colombian senator Mario Uribe Escobar, a cousin of President Alvaro Uribe, has sought political asylum at the Costa Rican embassy, Spain’s EFE news agency reported Wednesday. Mario Uribe’s lawyer Jose del Carmen Ortega told Caracol Radio the former senator filed an asylum request with the Costa Rican government after the attorney general (AG)’s office issued an arrest warrant on him for alleged links with right wing militia.
Ortega did not disclose on what ground his client sought the asylum.
” Mario Uribe is being investigated for a meeting he held with former paramilitary leader Salvatore Mancuso before the March 10, 2002, elections and with Jairo Castillo Peralta, alias ‘Pitirri,’ in November of 1998,” a statement from the AG’s office said.
Mancuso was the top leader of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), militia, while Castillo was a senior commander in the group.
Mario Uribe, one of dozens of politicians accused of having ties with right wing militia, faces charges of engaging in “criminal conspiracy to commit crimes via agreements to promote armed groups on the margins of the law,” the AG’s office said.
The warrant for Uribe Escobar came a day after two other politicians, a senator and a former mayor, were detained on similar charges.
Senator Ricardo Ariel Elcure Chacon surrendered Monday to authorities in Bogota after the Andean nation’s high court ordered his arrest.
A total of 32 members of Congress are under arrest and more than two dozen others are under investigation for their alleged links to the rightist death squads.
The penetration of the AUC into Colombian politics came to light in November 2006 when the so-called “para-political” scandal broke, leading to the arrests of the politicians, most of them allies of President Alvaro Uribe, now in his second term in office.
Last week, authorities said the speaker of congress, Nancy Patricia Gutierrez, and former speaker Carlos Garcia Orjuela, who heads the pro-government La U party, were under investigation.
Former Santa Marta Mayor, Jose Francisco Zu
- Man gets 24 years for Colombian journalist's killing - Feb 07, 2012
- Colombia nabs militiaman charged with 2,500 killings - Feb 17, 2010
- Colombian president's cousin seeks asylum - Apr 23, 2008
- Colombian politician sentenced to 40 years for massacre - Feb 24, 2010
- Colombian prosecutor gets 15 years for drug links - Mar 11, 2011
- Suspect in slaying of Argentine singer nabbed - Mar 14, 2012
- Judge gunned down in Colombia - Apr 23, 2010
- Colombian warlord collected ID papers of his 12,000 victims - Aug 14, 2009
- Colombia's most wanted drug trafficker arrested - Apr 16, 2009
- Colombian president's ally arrested for militia ties - Jul 26, 2008
- Colombia probes vice president over militia ties - Oct 20, 2009
- 16 killed in Colombia coal mine explosion (Lead) - Jun 17, 2010
- Drug lord described as `murderer of murderers' killed - Dec 30, 2010
- Colombia to send 50 soldiers to Afghanistan - May 27, 2010
- Venezuela, Colombia agree to resume relations - Aug 11, 2010
Tags: andean nation, arrest warrant, auc, carmen ortega, chacon, costa rican embassy, costa rican government, criminal conspiracy, death squads, efe news agency, embassy spain, jairo castillo, jose del carmen, mario uribe, members of congress, paramilitary leader, political asylum, political scandal, president alvaro uribe, salvatore mancuso