AUC donated more than $134K to 2002 Uribe campaign: Former lawmaker .
AUC donated more than $134K to 2002 Uribe campaign: Former lawmaker .
Sunday, 07 October 2012 09:05 Adriaan Alsema
Demobilized paramilitary organization AUC spent more than $134 thousand in the northern department of Cordoba to support the successful 2002 presidential campaign of Alvaro Uribe, said a former ally of both the AUC and Uribe in an interview published Sunday.
Former congressman Miguel de la Espriella, who was one of the first politicians to be sentenced for his ties to the paramilitaries, told newspaper El Espectador that the $134 thousand was spent on t-shirts that were donated to the local campaign manager of Uribe and excluded the cost of transporting voters on election day.
The disgraced lawmaker's assertion came only weeks after De la Espriella and Eleonora Pineda, another politician for ties to the AUC, told a court that Uribe had been aware of financial and logistical support of the ACCU, a paramilitary group active in the northwest of Colombia, for the campaign in the Cordoba department.
According to De la Espriella, he, Pineda and fellow-lawmaker Mario Uribe -- the former President's cousin -- were employed by the paramilitary group in 2001 to mediate between the ACCU and Uribe. All three were later convicted for conspiring with paramilitary groups, popularly known as "parapolitics."
More:
http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/26391-auc-donated-more-than-134k-to-uribe.html