BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Former Colombian President Álvaro Uribe was convicted of witness tampering and bribery Monday in a historic trial that gripped the South American nation and threatened to tarnish the conservative strongman’s legacy.
The ruling followed a nearly six-month trial in which prosecutors presented evidence that Uribe attempted to influence witnesses who accused the law-and-order leader of having links to a paramilitary group founded by ranchers in the 1990s.
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Opponents of former President Alvaro Uribe gather outside the court where a verdict is expected in his trial for witness tampering in Bogota, Colombia, Monday, July 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)
Supporters of former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe hold cutouts of his face outside the court where a verdict is expected in his trial for witness tampering in Bogota, Colombia, Monday, July 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)
An opponent of former President Alvaro Uribe displays a sign reading in Spanish "Uribe to jail" outside the court where a verdict is expected in his trial for witness tampering in Bogota, Colombia, Monday, July 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)
Police stand in front of a banner reading in Spanish "Uribe guilty" displayed by opponents of former President Alvaro Uribe outside the court where a verdict is expected in his trial for witness tampering in Bogota, Colombia, Monday, July 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)
Opponents of former President Alvaro Uribe display a sign reading in Spanish "Guilty" outside the court where a verdict is expected in his trial for witness tampering in Bogota, Colombia, Monday, July 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)
Uribe, 73, was not in court in the capital, Bogota, for the verdict as the judge has so far not ordered his arrest. He followed the ruling from his home outside Medellin but did not immediately speak about it.
Uribe faces up to 12 years in prison but a sentencing will be delivered in a separate hearing. He is expected to appeal the ruling.
The former president, who governed from 2002 to 2010 with strong support from the United States, is a polarizing figure in Colombia, where many credit him for saving the country from becoming a failed state, while others associate him with human rights violations and the rise of paramilitary groups in the 1990s.
While the ruling was read, Uribe's opponents clashed briefly with his supporters outside the courthouse.
In a ruling that lasted more than 10 hours, Judge Sandra Heredia said there was enough evidence to determine that Uribe conspired with a lawyer to coax three former members of paramilitary groups who were in prison into changing testimony they had provided to Ivan Cepeda, a left-wing senator who had launched an investigation into Uribe’s alleged ties to a paramilitary group.
The case dates to 2012, when Uribe filed a libel suit against Cepeda with the Supreme Court. But in a twist, the high court dismissed the charges against Cepeda and began investigating Uribe in 2018.
During Uribe's presidency, Colombia’s military attained some of its biggest battlefield victories against Latin America’s oldest leftist insurgency, pushing the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia into remote pockets and forcing the group’s leadership into peace talks that led to the disarmament of more than 13,000 fighters in 2016.
Known for his tireless work ethic and short temper, Uribe still has legions of followers in Colombia and is one of the fiercest opponents of the current president, former leftist guerrilla Gustavo Petro.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio reacted to the ruling, as it became evident that Judge Heredia was going to find the former president guilty of bribery.
“Uribe’s only crime has been to tirelessly fight and defend his homeland” Rubio wrote on Monday on X. “The weaponization of Colombia’s judicial branch by radical judges has now set a worrisome precedent.”
Colombian President Gustavo Petro defended the ruling, writing on X that “a strong justice system” will enable Colombia to emerge from violence. He added in another message that Rubio was interfering with Colombia's sovereignty.
“The world must respect the judges of Colombia" Petro wrote.
Heredia said that her ruling should not be interpreted as “a victory for anyone” but as “an act of justice.”
Critics also blame Uribe for state crimes. According to a truth commission created in 2017, more than 6,400 civilians were executed by the Colombian military and identified as members of rebel groups by soldiers seeking promotions during the conflict, in a phenomenon that peaked during the Uribe administration.
Prosecutors accused Uribe of sending lawyers to meet with imprisoned former paramilitary henchmen and pressure them to drop testimony that they had provided to Senator Cepeda.
During the trial, Uribe denied trying to flip witnesses but acknowledged seeking interviews with the men as part of his preparation for trial and to verify testimonies that were also being used in a murder trial against his brother, Santiago Uribe, who was also accused of ties to the armed paramilitaries.
Cepeda spoke to journalists after the ruling, and said that he would continue to fight for “truth and justice" for victims of Colombia's conflict. “No one can defy and taint the rule of law,” he said.
Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america
Opponents of former President Alvaro Uribe gather outside the court where a verdict is expected in his trial for witness tampering in Bogota, Colombia, Monday, July 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)
Supporters of former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe hold cutouts of his face outside the court where a verdict is expected in his trial for witness tampering in Bogota, Colombia, Monday, July 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)
An opponent of former President Alvaro Uribe displays a sign reading in Spanish "Uribe to jail" outside the court where a verdict is expected in his trial for witness tampering in Bogota, Colombia, Monday, July 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)
Police stand in front of a banner reading in Spanish "Uribe guilty" displayed by opponents of former President Alvaro Uribe outside the court where a verdict is expected in his trial for witness tampering in Bogota, Colombia, Monday, July 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)
Opponents of former President Alvaro Uribe display a sign reading in Spanish "Guilty" outside the court where a verdict is expected in his trial for witness tampering in Bogota, Colombia, Monday, July 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The Justice Department is investigating whether Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey have impeded federal immigration enforcement through public statements they have made, two people familiar with the matter said Friday.
The investigation, which both Walz and Frey said was a bullying tactic meant to threaten political opposition, focused on potential violation of a conspiracy statute, the people said.
The people spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss a pending investigation by name.
CBS News first reported the investigation.
The investigation comes during a weekslong immigration crackdown in Minneapolis and St. Paul that the Department of Homeland Security has called its largest recent immigration enforcement operation, resulting in more than 2,500 arrests.
The operation has become more confrontational since the fatal shooting of Renee Good on Jan. 7, with agents pulling people from cars and homes and frequently being confronted by angry bystanders demanding they leave. State and local officials have repeatedly told protesters to remain peaceful.
In response to reports of the investigation, Walz said in a statement: “Two days ago it was Elissa Slotkin. Last week it was Jerome Powell. Before that, Mark Kelly. Weaponizing the justice system and threatening political opponents is a dangerous, authoritarian tactic.”
U.S. senators Kelly, from Arizona, and Slotkin, from Michigan, are under investigation from the President Donald Trump administration after appearing with other Democratic lawmakers in a video urging members of the military to resist “illegal orders." The administration has also launched a criminal investigation of Powell, a first for a sitting federal reserve chair.
Walz’s office said it has not received any notice of an investigation.
Frey described the investigation as an attempt to intimidate him for “standing up for Minneapolis, our local law enforcement, and our residents against the chaos and danger this Administration has brought to our streets.”
The U.S. attorney’s office in Minneapolis did not immediately comment.
In a post on the social media platform X following reports of the investigation, Attorney General Pam Bondi said: “A reminder to all those in Minnesota: No one is above the law.” She did not specifically mention the investigation.
State authorities, meanwhile, had a message for any weekend protests against the Trump administration’s immigration sweep in the Twin Cities: avoid confrontation.
“While peaceful expression is protected, any actions that harm people, destroy property or jeopardize public safety will not be tolerated,” said Commissioner Bob Jacobson of the Minnesota Department of Public Safety.
His comments came after Trump backed off a bit from his threat a day earlier to invoke an 1807 law, the Insurrection Act, to send troops to suppress demonstrations.
“I don’t think there’s any reason right now to use it, but if I needed it, I’d use it,” Trump told reporters outside the White House.
Federal officers in the Minneapolis-area participating in the enforcement operation can’t detain or tear gas peaceful protesters, who aren’t obstructing authorities, including when these people are observing the agents, a U.S. judge in Minnesota ruled Friday.
U.S. District Judge Kate Menendez ruled in the case filed in December on behalf of six Minnesota activists, which were represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota.
Government attorneys argued that the officers have been acting within their legal authority to enforce immigration laws and protect themselves. But the ACLU has said government officers are violating the constitutional rights of Twin Cities residents.
A Liberian man who has been shuttled in and out of custody since immigration agents broke down his door with a battering ram was released again Friday, hours after a routine check-in with authorities led to his second arrest.
The dramatic initial arrest of Garrison Gibson last weekend was captured on video. U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Bryan ruled the arrest unlawful Thursday and freed him, but Gibson was detained again Friday when he appeared at an immigration office.
A few hours later, Gibson was free again, attorney Marc Prokosch said.
“In the words of my client, he said that somebody at ICE said they bleeped up and so they re-released him this afternoon and so he’s out of custody,” Prokosch said, referring to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Gibson, 37, who fled the civil war in his West African home country as a child, had been ordered removed from the U.S., apparently because of a 2008 drug conviction that was later dismissed. He has remained in the country legally under what’s known as an order of supervision, Prokosch said, and complied with the requirement that he meet regularly with immigration authorities.
In his Thursday order, the judge agreed that officials violated regulations by not giving Gibson enough notice that his supervision status had been revoked. Prokosch said he was told by ICE that they are “now going through their proper channels" to revoke the order.
Minneapolis authorities released police and fire dispatch logs and transcripts of 911 calls, all related to the fatal shooting of Good. Firefighters found what appeared to be two gunshot wounds in her right chest, one in her left forearm and a possible gunshot wound on the left side of her head, records show.
“They shot her, like, cause she wouldn’t open her car door,” a caller said. “Point blank range in her car.”
Good, 37, was at the wheel of her Honda Pilot, which was partially blocking a street. Video showed an officer approached the SUV, demanded that she open the door and grabbed the handle.
Good began to pull forward and turned the vehicle's wheel to the right. Another ICE officer, Jonathan Ross, pulled his gun and fired at close range, jumping back as the SUV moved past him. DHS claims the agent shot Good in self-defense.
Richer and Tucker reported from Washington. Associated Press reporters Steve Karnowski in Minneapolis; Ed White and Corey Williams in Detroit; Graham Lee Brewer in Oklahoma City; Jesse Bedayn in Denver; Audrey McAvoy in Honolulu; Hallie Golden in Seattle; and Ben Finley in Washington contributed.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and his wife, Gwen Walz, attend a vigil honoring Renee Good on Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, in St. Paul, Minn., outside the Minnesota State Capitol. (Kerem Yücel/Minnesota Public Radio via AP)
ADDS IDENTIFICATION: Teyana Gibson Brown, right, wife of Garrison Gibson, reacts after federal immigration officers arrested Garrison Gibson, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)
ADDS IDENTIFICATION: Teyana Gibson Brown, second from left, wife of Garrison Gibson, reacts after federal immigration officers arrested Garrison Gibson, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)
ADDS IDENTIFICATION: Garrison Gibson is arrested by federal immigration officers Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)
ADDS IDENTIFICATION: Garrison Gibson becomes emotional as he is arrested by federal immigration officers Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)
A family member reacts after federal immigration officers make an arrest Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)
A man is arrested by federal immigration officers Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)
A family member reacts after federal immigration officers make an arrest Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)
A man becomes emotional as he is arrested by federal immigration officers Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)
Federal immigration officers prepare to enter a home to make an arrest after an officer used a battering ram to break down a door Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, including one wearing a 'NOT ICE' face covering, walk near their vehicles, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Richfield, Minn. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)
A person looks out of their vehicle as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents walk away, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Richfield, Minn. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)
