Bogota.- The Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice confirmed this Thursday the 28-year and three-month prison sentence against rancher Santiago Uribe, brother of former Colombian president Alvaro Uribe (2002-2010), for creating and financing the paramilitary group ‘The Twelve Apostles’.
“Dr. Jaime Granados (lawyer for the Uribe family) informs me that journalistic reports indicate the Supreme Court has confirmed the conviction against my brother Santiago. A devastating issue for my family,” expressed the former president in a message posted on X.
The Court ratified that Santiago Uribe committed the crimes of conspiracy to commit a crime and aggravated homicide, both aggravated, by participating in the formation of ‘The Twelve Apostles’, a paramilitary group that was born in the municipality of Yarumal, Antioquia department (northwest), and also for being involved in the murder of Camilo Barrientos, committed in 1994 in that town.
The sentence against Álvaro Uribe’s brother
The Plenary Chamber confirmed “the sentence issued on November 25, 2025, by the Superior Court of Antioquia, through which it convicted Santiago Uribe Vélez as a criminally responsible co-author of aggravated conspiracy to commit a crime and aggravated homicide, as a concurrence of crimes against humanity,” a decision against which “no appeal is possible.”
We recommend reading: Palestine accuses Israel at the UN of taking advantage of the war to increase its occupation
The defense of the rancher Uribe was led by lawyer Jaime Granados, who is also the former president’s attorney in his judicial cases and stated on several occasions that there were false witnesses and even media manipulation in the process.
More Read
Former President Uribe, meanwhile, has been denounced for his alleged ties to paramilitaries during his years as governor of Antioquia (1995-1997), including one that indirectly links him to the El Aro massacre, in which 17 peasants were murdered in October 1997.
