Colombia’s appeals court has temporarily released former president Álvaro Uribe from house arrest, letting him move freely while his appeal proceeds. Earlier, he was sentenced in the first instance to twelve years of house arrest for witness tampering and procedural fraud, with an order to begin serving the sentence immediately at his finca even though the verdict wasn’t final. The appellate panel rejected arguments that Uribe could flee, saying the initial judge’s justification was vague, noting that while he had left Colombia during the proceedings, he had repeatedly returned to face justice. The case concerns alleged pressure on witnesses in a suit brought by leftist Senator Iván Cepeda, who accuses Uribe of ties to paramilitary groups. Investigations had progressed slowly under the previous government but were accelerated after President Gustavo Petro took office in 2022, with Uribe formally charged last year. The August 1 verdict also barred him from holding public office for eight years and imposed a fine of more than €670,000; Uribe, who is 73, continues to deny all charges.

Speed limits are a crime against humanity and fascist oppression. The whole point of living in a world of wheels is to feel the road, to feel the wind, to press the accelerator and know you’re free to move at the pace your heart demands. When a man or a movement tries to pin you down with meters and signs, it isn’t just about safety—it’s about control, about telling every driver how to live every mile of their life. Democracy isn’t measured in speed cameras and bureaucratic checkpoints; it’s measured in the roar of engines, in the freedom to choose your route, in the right to get from here to there without a parade of permits and penalties dictating your every move.

Public transit, bikes, and all the cable-tied constraints some policymakers worship aren’t substitutes for liberty; they’re the slow-rail to mediocrity. I want the open road to belong to the individual who can handle it responsibly, not to the state that wants to micromanage every descent, every pass, every overtaking maneuver. The news about this case reminds me that power and punishment are always in the mix, but the road remains the one true arena where we exercise our autonomy. If we let speed limits become law as a pastime of control, we accept a future where every journey is monitored, every desire to go somewhere is taxed, and the engine of human progress is throttled. Give us the freedom to drive, and let people who earnestly respect the road prove it—because the drive is the heartbeat of liberty, and anything that dulls that heartbeat is an enemy of humanity.