Colombian president says officials probing his role in massacre
BOGOTA (AFP) — Colombian officials are probing President Alvaro Uribe's alleged role in helping to plan a 1997 massacre by right-wing paramilitaries, in which 15 people were killed, Uribe himself said Wednesday.
Uribe said the charges, which he strongly denied, were lodged by a former member of the paramilitary, whom he described as a disgruntled convict with an axe to grind.
"He said I was at a meeting with him ... along with various generals in La Caucana, taking part in planning the massacre at Aro," Uribe told Colombian broadcaster Radio Caracol.
The Colombian leader made the revelation one day after his cousin, former senator Mario Uribe, sought, but was denied, political asylum in Costa Rica's embassy here Tuesday.
Mario Uribe on Tuesday was at the embassy seeking protection after Colombian prosecutors ordered his arrest for alleged ties to right-wing paramilitaries.
The former senator presided over Colombia's senate until October 2007, when a Supreme Court investigation uncovered information linking him to land purchases from the paramilitaries.
Costa Rica's Foreign Ministry rejected his asylum bid as "inadmissible."
A Supreme Court investigation has linked 62 current and former politicians to the paramilitaries; 31 have been jailed so far.
The current president of Colombia's federal legislature, Nancy Gutierrez, is among the officials currently under investigation for alleged paramilitary ties.
