President Trump: Colombia has the same problem as Brazil, and they want to do to Uribe what is being done to Bolsonaro

President Donald Trump decided to impose severe tariffs of 50% on Brazil, and one of the main reasons is the persecution that the socialist government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has undertaken against the former president and opposition leader, Jair Bolsonaro.

There is no doubt: the Brazilian regime has used the justice system to persecute its opponents. The case against Bolsonaro is completely absurd, and the seams of the judicial and political system have been exposed. President Trump, surely, will feel empathy because he experienced it firsthand.

However, right next to Brazil, there is another case of persecution that is even more obscene. In terms of weaponization of the justice system, the case in Colombia is on steroids.

In 2012, far-left senator and former member of the Communist Party, Ivan Cepeda, accused former conservative President Álvaro Uribe of crimes against humanity. Cepeda took those accusations all the way to the courts, and ultimately the Colombian justice system decided to start the investigation against Uribe.

Throughout the process, it has been clear that Cepeda's accusations against Uribe are unfounded and unsupported. Properly, Uribe—who was president of Colombia between 2002 and 2010 and was largely responsible for wiping out the communist FARC guerrillas, drug trafficking and reinserting the country into modernity—was accused of committing excesses in his war against narco-terrorism. However, all the witnesses that have come forward, both from one side and the other, have dismantled the narrative that the former president committed crimes.

Despite the fact that the accusations against him are unfounded, the process has continued. And the day before yesterday, after 67 sessions lasting several hours, the trial that will define the future of the man who saved Colombia from the guerrillas and extreme-left terrorism concluded. On July 28, the judge will announce the ruling.

These 67 sessions have exposed the manipulation of the judicial system. The judge refused to hear witnesses from the defense, has allowed the prosecution to manipulate the trial and has given Cepeda every freedom to present whatever witnesses he wants. The judge even manipulated Uribe's testimony to make it look like he has acknowledged some of the accusations.

Patiently and in a disciplined manner, Uribe has followed his trial, attending each of the sessions, defending himself against each accusation. The people can see it: he has shown his face, making it clear that he has nothing to hide.

This persecution against Álvaro Uribe is encouraged by the government of socialist Gustavo Petro, who has close relations with both the judge and the prosecutor. During the trial, it has also been exposed how Cepeda himself paid some witnesses so that they would incriminate Uribe.

The whole case is an absurd example of the weaponization of the justice system to persecute Uribe. And it is not simply the state, corruption and drug trafficking against a political opponent. Uribe is much more than that. He is a symbol of the fight against organized crime, drug trafficking, and the rule of law and security. If the left manages to put him in jail, it would be a triumph of unmeasured proportions. Uribe represents a lot for the conservative movement in Colombia and the entire continent.

President Donald Trump himself said so in October 2020, during his first term, just as Uribe regained his freedom after spending 67 days under house arrest, also as a result of this persecution: "Congratulations to former President [Álvaro Uribe], a hero, former recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom and an ally of our Country in the fight against CASTRO-CHAVISMO! I will always stand with our Colombian friends!"

That great ally of freedom, that hero who saved Colombia from the clutches of an eternal and bloody guerrilla war, is today in danger and at the mercy of a corrupt, politicized judge, who is willing to twist the entire judicial system to see Uribe behind bars.

President Donald Trump has shown that this White House takes care of its allies, as with the case of Bolsonaro and that of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who also faces persecution in his country. Trump's words of support make it clear that this United States values its friends and is willing to stand up for justice beyond its own borders.

The warning by Senator Bernie Moreno is very important: "Colombia needs to stop its own weaponization of its justice system against former President Alvaro Uribe. It’s a very dangerous path for what should be one of America's top allies in Latin America."

It is a very clear message that cannot fall on deaf ears. The persecution of Álvaro Uribe deserves Donald Trump's attention because Uribe represents much more than the opposition in Colombia. Uribe is the proof that Colombia can be a great and strategic ally of the United States in the war against drug trafficking and that, despite Petro, this country still exists.

President Trump experienced it firsthand. When corruption infiltrates the justice system, the concept of equality before the law does not exist. The treatment of former President Uribe is not fair and must stop. Those who are advancing this witch hunt should face consequences. The United States could do a lot to help a good friend who today needs a hand. It would be a favor, not only to Colombians, but to the entire democratic world.