Thousands of Colombians took to the streets of the nation’s main cities on Thursday in support of conservative former President Álvaro Uribe Vélez after he was sentenced to 12 years of house arrest.
According to the Colombian newspaper El Tiempo, the peaceful demonstrations took place in over 28 of the country’s cities, including its capital Bogotá. Many of the participants wore white clothing and bore Colombian flags and banners and flyers with messages of support to Uribe.
The nationwide rallies were organized by Uribe’s Democratic Center party, who also organized pro-Uribe rallies in Miami, Houston, and in Spain and Canada.
Residents of Cali who support former President Alvaro Uribe Velez took to the streets to show their support following the 12-year sentence handed down by the Prosecutor’s Office on July 30. (Photo by Edwin Rodriguez Pipicano/Anadolu via Getty Images)
The party reportedly chose August 7 as the day for the peaceful rallies as the date coincided with the 206th anniversary of the 1819 Battle of Boyacá, a key moment in Colombia’s independence movement from Spanish colonial rule. August 7 also marked the third anniversary of far-left President Gustavo Petro, and the beginning of his last year in office, as Colombia’s constitution only allows individuals to serve as president for a single four-year term with no possibility of reelection.
Many of the participants reportedly espoused chants against Petro, while others chanted slogans in support of both Uribe and conservative Senator Miguel Uribe (no relation), who remains unconscious at a healthcare facility in Bogotá after a minor shot the Senator three times in June, inflicting two gunshot wounds to his skull and one to his left leg.
Although all of the rallies were peaceful, El Tiempo reported that in the city of Cali a small group of six anti-Uribe rioters attempted to incite a fight with a group of peaceful protesters, leading to a series of shoves and blows that lasted for more than five minutes until the police intervened to break the fight before it escalated further. No serious injuries or arrests were reported according to El Tiempo.
Álvaro Uribe Vélez is one of the most prominent conservative politicians in Colombia, having served as president between 2002 and 2010. The former president served two consecutive terms during a time when Colombia’s constitution had a short-lived amendment that allowed presidential elections before it was reversed in 2015.
Uribe significantly strengthened Colombia’s relationship with the United States during his administration and that of former President George W. Bush, and adapted some of the United States’ counterterrorism tactics employed in the Middle East at the time against the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) Marxist terrorist group.
Last week, Judge Sandra Heredia found Uribe guilty on charges of abuse of process and bribery of a public official in a trial widely criticized by local politicians, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and other U.S. government officials over concerns of judicial irregularities and multiple due process violations committed against Uribe.
Days later, Judge Heredia sentenced Uribe to 12 years house arrest and imposed a roughly $840,000 fine and a 100 months and 20 days ban from holding public office. Uribe and his legal team have stressed that the conviction will be appealed all the way to the Colombian Supreme Court if needed. After the sentence was formalized on Wednesday, Uribe said that he will continue the fight against the “emerging neo-communist gag.”
Uribe published a new video on social media on Thursday afternoon, thanking attendees for their participation and for their messages of support. The video was recorded at Uribe’s residence in the municipality of Rionegro, Antioquia, where he is now serving the house arrest sentence at.
In the video, the former President said that Colombia needs a transitional government that “projects long-term stability for the democratic future of the nation,” so that the country does not become the nation with the most criminals or a world capital of narcotics, but rather, “an example on how to eliminate them.”
Uribe also highlighted the “faces with deep faith raising prayers to Heaven” for Sen. Miguel Uribe’s health that participated in the peaceful rallies and stressed upon Colombia’s need to establish a new iteration of the “Plan Colombia” security cooperation agreement with the U.S., as well as establish an alliance with Israel, whose security exports were largely crucial in Colombia’s decades-long fight against FARC and other terrorist groups.
Israel suspended its security exports to Colombia after President Gustavo Petro accused Israel of committing a “genocide” in Gaza, compared Israel’s actions to that of Nazi Germany, and accused it of turning Gaza into a concentration camp to the likes of Auschwitz. Petro Unilaterally cut Colombia’s decades long diplomatic ties with Israel in 2024.
Uribe’s controversial conviction stems from a highly-convoluted legal process that began in 2012. At the time, Uribe sued Colombian leftist Senator Iván Cepeda for allegedly seeking to bribe individuals to testify against him. Six years later, in 2018, Colombian courts dismissed Uribe’s complaint against Cepeda and instead ordered an investigation against Uribe for the same allegations that led to his conviction and house arrest sentence.
“This all has its origin in that one of the lawmakers closest to Petro, son of a revolutionary — indeed, he studied in the Soviet Union with a communist formation, who is Iván Cepeda,” Colombian Senator Paloma Valencia explained to Breitbart News in July. “He was visiting prisons — and this was absolutely proven — looking for testimonies against President Uribe tying him to paramilitaries and offering judicial benefits in exchange for these testimonies that carried humanitarian benefits.”
Rep. Díaz-Balart (R-FL) cited the controversial judicial process against Uribe as one of the main reasons to slash U.S. funding to Colombia by half during FY2026, in a report presented at the U.S. House Appropriations Committee in late July.
Rep. Díaz-Balart also cited the assassination attempt against Senator Miguel Uribe and President Gustavo Petro’s alleged drug addiction problems as other reasons that justify cutting U.S. funds to Colombia.
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