(former Colombian President) Uribe's brother met with Vicente Castaño: 'El Aleman'

Source: Colombia Reports

Uribe's brother met with Vicente Castaño: 'El Aleman'
Friday, 18 March 2011 06:04
Adriaan Alsema

http://colombiareports.com.nyud.net:8090/pics/2011/03/uribe_castano.jpg

Santiago Uribe, the brother of Colombia's former President Alvaro Uribe met with assumed dead paramilitary leader Vicente Castaño, AUC commander "El Aleman" testified before court.

According to newspaper El Espectador, Freddy Rendon Herrera, alias "El Aleman" said that Uribe met with Castaño and Raul Hazbun, a north Colombian businessman who mediated between the paramilitaries and banana company Chiquita, that has been convicted in the U.S. for financially supporting the paramilitary organization.

El Aleman told the court that Hazbun had told him the meeting between Uribe and Castaño, who was in charge of the paramilitary organization's drug trafficking operations.

Newspaper El Tiempo on Thursday reported that the paramilitary leader also accused "emerald czar" Victor Carranza of financially suporting the AUC.

Read more: http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/14979-uribes-brother-met-with-vicente-castano-el-aleman.html

From recent articles:

'El Tuso' incriminates 60 officials in 'parapolitics' scandal
Wednesday, 16 March 2011 08:46
Hannah Aronowitz

~snip~
Sierra was also a key witness in the case against former Senator Mario Uribe, the cousin of former President Alvaro Uribe, and has claimed that Santiago Uribe, the brother of the former president was involved in drug trafficking.

He is currently detained in a federal prison in Warsaw, Virginia.

http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/14928-el-tuso-incriminates-60-officials-in-parapolitics-scandal.html

~~~~~

Uribe sues Nobel Peace Prize winner over paramilitary slurs
Thursday, 24 February 2011 06:55
Adriaan Alsema

~snip~
Colombia's former President Alvaro Uribe filed a criminal complaint against Nobel Peace Prize winner Adolfo Perez Esquivel, after the Argentine reportedly accused Uribe of "ties with paramilitaries."

Uribe's decision to sue Perez Esquivel came a day after the Nobel Peace Prize winner said it was "not worth the effort" to sue the Colombian politician for saying the Argentine ran "errands for the FARC" and "promoted terrorism in Colombia."

"Never have I submitted to guerrillas or paramilitarism. Today I am filing criminal charges against Perez Esquivel," the former president announced via Twitter.

Just before announcing the slander lawsuit, Uribe accused Perez Esquivel of "protecting Meneses, on the run from justice."

Juan Carlos Meneses Quintero is a former police officer who in May 2010 accused Uribe's brother, Santiago Uribe, of having led a paramilitary death squad.

http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/14568-uribe-sues-nobel-peace-prize-winner-over-paramilitary-ties-accusation.html

~~~~~

Google translation from RCN Radio de Colombia

Alias ​​"The German" says former President Uribe's brother introduced him to the AUC to a banana magnate


The farmer Santiago Uribe Vélez, brother of former President of the Republic, Alvaro Uribe, was presented to the paramilitaries who then-employer Uraba banana, Raul Emilio Mendoza Hazbún said before the judges of the Superior Court of Bogota, the former paramilitary leader Freddy Rendón Herrera, aka 'The German'.

He stated that alias "Pedro Bonito, Santiago Uribe was invited by the house of Vicente Castaño Gil in the neighborhood of El Poblado in Medellin, where he later set up an office in charge of extortion of the AUC, managed by Hazbún.

During a version of Justice and Peace, the demobilized Rendón Herrera, said that thanks to "Pedro Bonito" that the multinational Chiquita Brands, promised to deliver three cents to the paramilitaries for each box of bananas produced in the Uraba.

Alias ​​"The German" also reiterated before the magistrates, meetings with the late former Secretary of Government of Antioquia, Pedro Juan Moreno, and retired general, Rito Alejo del Rio Rojas, who is arrested for his alleged links with paramilitaries.

Texto copiado de www.rcnradio.com - Conozca el original en http://www.rcnradio.com/noticias/18-03-11/alias-el-alem-n-dice-que-hermano-del-ex-presidente-uribe-le-present-las-auc-un-emp#ixzz1H4QbVUoh

~~~~~
Google translation from Semana in Colombia:

"Santiago Uribe Vélez sue the criminal alias the 'German'": Alvaro Uribe

http://www.semana.com.nyud.net:8090/photos/generales/ImgArticulo_T1_86404_2011318_111233.jpg

Freddy Rendón Herrera, aka the 'German', Alvaro Uribe Santiago Uribe.

According to statements by Freddy Rendón Herrera, aka the 'German', the Superior Court of Bogota, Santiago Uribe, brother of President Alvaro Uribe, had a relationship with Vicente Castaño.

"The brothers of former President Uribe are not children of Mother Teresa (...) If you ask Hazbún (Raul Hazbún, alias 'Pedro Bonito'), a banana from the upper class, he said that he introduced brother Vicente Castaño Alvaro Uribe, in a house in the village, "said Rendón.

~snip~
Meneses said in his remarks to the Washington Post that he had known of the illegal activities of Santiago Uribe, who said he had received monthly payments to allow illegal actions allegedly led the group.

In May 2010, the brother of the president recalled that the Attorney General filed two investigations against him, one in 1996 and again in 2000 for allegedly forming paramilitary groups.

http://www.semana.com/noticias-nacion/santiago-uribe-velez-demandara-criminal-alias-aleman-alvaro-uribe/153512.aspx