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.
Later on Wednesday Uribe wrote “I have fought criminals transparently and I just have filed charges for the slander of Perez Esquivel.”
“I don’t care what Alvaro Uribe does,” Perez Sequivel said on Venezuelan radio after hearing about the lawsuit.
The exchange of accusations between Uribe and long-time critic Perez Esquivel started while the Argentine took part in a forum on peace in Colombia, organized by another Uribe critic, the former Senator Piedad Cordoba.
