The extradition process of the former head of the Clan del Golfo, Dairo Antonio Úsuga, alias Otoniel, has never been as imminent as it is now. After the refusal of the Special Jurisdiction for Peace to accept him as a civil third party, his sending to US cells was left without any legal brake and on the verge of materializing in the Supreme Court of Justice.
The argument was processed in record time in the jurisdiction and it is concrete: Otoniel was unable to demonstrate his participation as a civilian third party during the armed conflict and, on the contrary, the JEP determined that he could not appear under that figure because all his participation during the conflict was within the armed groups, especially within the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, and not outside of them.
“The armed actions by the applicant did not cease and the condition for which he seeks acceptance of his submission, that is, that of a collaborating civilian third party, was not specified or proven, it was only stated in a disjointed manner,” argued the JEP .
But this decision does not go against the interest that the JEP has shown in hearing what the former drug trafficker has to say about his alleged participation in the conflict as a FARC guerrilla, the EPL and a member of the AUC.
Immediately after rejecting the request for submission, the JEP announced the second point of order 1008 of 2022 – held by EL COLOMBIANO – as a request to the Supreme Court of Justice to condition the extradition on two points.
First, it asks that the delivery be made once Úsuga has complied with the requirements of the Comprehensive Truth System to specify the victims’ right to the truth; and, secondly, it urges that, once the corresponding sentence is served in the United States, that government deport Otoniel to Colombia, “in order for him to assume responsibility for the crimes committed here, without the need for a request.” of extradition raised by the Colombian government for this purpose.
The JEP even brings up the example of a similar case close to Otoniel: that of Daniel Rendón Herrera, alias Don Mario, one of the powerful paramilitaries who founded the Clan del Golfo. In this situation, the Supreme Court accepted the submission of Don Mario, but conditioned it, precisely, on the fact that the former drug trafficker met all the truth needs.
According to what is read in the order of the Court of April 22, 2008 “(…) although the Colombian State is committed to prosecute the crime, both internally and before the international community, said obligation is not of greater importance. importance or hierarchy than that inherent in the effective protection of the rights of victims.
Under this argument, the Court took a decade to send Don Mario to the Bruklin prison in New York. Although he accepted extradition in 2008, he ended up sending him ten years later when he finished telling the truth about him in Colombian cells.
Although the political circumstances are different. While the government of former president Juan Manuel Santos did not have political pressure to send Don Mario as soon as possible, the current administration of Iván Duque did, since he has shown the capture of “Otoniel” as one of the most important victories and has intentions that the extradition takes place before leaving the Casa de Nariño.
In any case, the process in the Court has presented obstacles. This Friday it became known that the magistrate Diego Corredor was challenged for a trill in which he supposedly had shown his position regarding the “Otoniel” case. If accepted, the file would go to another togado and it would take additional time while the Chamber rearranges itself.
What he has said in the JEP
While the JEP was studying the summons request that arrived at his office on February 28 – five months after Otoniel’s capture in October 2021 – he took the opportunity to listen to him about false positives and violence between armed groups in Urabá, Antioquia.
As a result of these hearings, the former drug trafficker splashed high-ranking officers of the Public Force such as General (re) Leonardo Barrero, who was commander of the National Army and is accused by Otoniel of serving as a bridge between structures dedicated to drug trafficking and the Army, therefore which was considered to be “part of the Centauros Block payroll.”
Likewise, he linked the former director of the DAS in the department of Casanare, Orlando Rivas, and General (r) Henry Torres Escalante, who was the first military officer of that rank to be prosecuted for false positives in the Special Jurisdiction.
Listening to “Otoniel” has not been easy. Judges and investigators from the JEP and the Truth Commission have denounced a lack of privacy on the part of Dijin agents.
So much so that the JEP ordered the director of Inpec, Major General Fernando Murillo Orrego, to refrain from “carrying out actions that affect the confidentiality of judicial proceedings with the presence of uniformed personnel or personnel other than those summoned in the orders in the courtrooms. hearing (…)”.
But that warning was not enough. This Thursday, the Jurisdiction opened an incident of contempt against the director Murillo and ordered his magistrates to specify in what way the measures interposed to guarantee privacy have been violated and summoned the director for a hearing in which he will have to defend himself on the next 31 March at two in the afternoon.
For now, the defense of Dairo Antonio Úsuga continues to evaluate the resolution with which the JEP responded but, from the outset, he assured this newspaper that he will appeal the decision before the Juridical Situations Definition Chamber that made the decision.