In a surprise move roughly one month ago Colombia’s Supreme Court ordered the house arrest of former President Àlvaro Uribe after allegations of witness tampering. The considerable controversy this has triggered could not occur at a worse time for Colombia, which is reeling from the harsh impact of the coronavirus pandemic and the March 2020 oil price crash. The controversial former president is credited with creating the conditions which reinvigorated Colombia’s vital oil industry and sparked the economic miracle that saw the Andean country report some of the strongest rates of growth in Latin America. Crucially, this includes suppressing the leftist guerillas who by the time of Uribe’s ascension to Colombia’s top job had control over large swathes of the country. This latest event comes on the back of growing fears that the landmark 2016 peace deal with the largest guerilla group, The FARC (Spanish acronym), is unraveling leading […]