Given the number of complaints of possible cases of corruption that are entrenched in the Medellin’s town hallthe Attorney General consolidated an elite research group that has a clear instruction: “Sweep away the corruption that exists in the administration from Medellin”.
This was assured to EL COLOMBIANO by the attorney general of the nation, Francis Barbosawho also confirmed that the judicial investigations are already underway and that, for the same reason, he hopes to present results soon.
Barbosa spoke with this medium in the bunker of the Prosecutor’s Office in Medellín, and in addition to announcing the battle against corruption, he also made a crude x-ray of the country’s crime situation. He revealed that the “plan pistol” of Gulf Clan already leaves 30 dead cops only in Antioquia in this 2022.
On March 1st, Mr. Prosecutor, you told us that you were in Medellin creating a group to investigate the complaints about what is happening in the city. What happened?
“The group was structured. We are giving a new dimension to the Prosecutor’s Office compared to the Corruption in Medellín and Antioquiahas to do with the strengthening of their teams through the new sectional directors who arrived a few days ago in Medellín and Antioquia, and there will be elite groups directed by them and by the same deputy prosecutor (Martha Mancera), who has been behind this, in order to be able in this year and seven months that we have left to sweep away the corruption that exists in the administration of Medellín, and that exists in the administration of the department of Antioquia.”
A kind of “search block”?
“There is going to be very important judicial work to prevent us from having to wait years to resolve these cases, we are going to try to resolve them quickly. That is the task and it is very clear for all the teams of prosecutors and investigators that exist at this moment in Medellín and Antioquia.”
And what have they found so far?
“We are already in the first acts of investigation in a large part of these complaints and, surely, as always, there will be results and I will come to give them to you to the Antioquians”.
Prosecutor, you say “sweep away the corruption that exists in the Medellín administration.” In other words, does the Prosecutor’s Office already have accurate evidence that there is corruption?
“We have elements that can lead us to say that there is some type of corruption. But we, for now, are currently in the investigations. One of the characteristics of this Prosecutor’s Office is that only when we have material evidence and sufficient physical evidence do we go before the guarantee control judges.
What we have at this time is clarity that in all parts of the national territory, in all administrations, there have been acts of corruption and it is necessary to prosecute them. For now, I do not have concrete results, because so far the teams are starting to work. Part of the new approach that we have in the Prosecutor’s Office in Medellín, in Antioquia, and in different places in the national territory, is a crusade against corruption this year and eight months that I have left in the Prosecutor’s Office.”
Why did you start with Medellin and not in another city?
“Because Medellín is a good example of the work we have been doing and because of the results in this place. We have indicted former governors, former mayors, councilors, mayors, and we have worked on issues of domain extinction against public officials. Then Medellín is a good example for the country, so that those elite teams that I want to establish, and that are established in Medellín and Antioquia, serve us in other departments and in Bogotá”.
Is the change that you have just made of the directors of prosecutors in Medellín and Antioquia responding to that, perhaps because they were not giving results against corruption?
“It responds to the new dynamics of the Strategic Plan of the Prosecutor’s Office. A lot of work has been done in terms of dismantling dissidents and organized groups. But on the issue of corruption we did not have enough groups to be able to give a number of results. The directors fulfilled their function, the We made changes not only in Antioquia and Medellín, because the objective we have in this year and a half is corruption.”
In what has to do with Medellín and Antioquia, do the investigations that you have been doing touch the heads of those administrations?
“You know what the legal situation of the Governor of Antioch (Aníbal Gaviria), who has a case before the Supreme Court in the Trial Chamber; It is an action that derived from an investigation by the Prosecutor’s Office directed by one of the prosecutors delegated to the Court, who presented an indictment. He is on trial before the Court.
Facing the case of Mayor of Medellin (Daniel Quintero) We do not have evidence to be able to say whether or not there are material evidence or illegal conduct. What we do have clarity on is that we are going to intervene from the point of view of the number of complaints we have received and the elite group is going to start acting in Medellín and Antioquia.”
But in the mayor’s case, for example, there have been media reports raising concerns about how the brother or some secretaries could possibly have gotten rich. Does that have progress in the Prosecutor’s Office?
“We have advanced. At this time there are investigative acts that will lead us to conclusions on these matters. Precisely, as I told you, we request a precautionary measure on four assets related to former AUC commander Vicente Castaño that now appear, among others, in the name of former Governor Luis Pérez Gutiérrez.”
Precisely in Antioquia it has always been said that Luis Pérez, despite having been a public official all his life, has obtained a lot of land and, according to some of the complaints, the same thing is being repeated now, presumably, with people close to the Medellín Mayor’s Office. ..
“Of course, we are going to work on that, and that is what we are doing. We cannot make decisions 10 years after the occurrence of the events. If there are public officials who cannot prove the origin of their resources, then domain extinction will appear. I am not leaving the Prosecutor’s Office without having concrete results against those officials who use public service to enrich themselves.”
When is Medellín going to know the results of the complaints?
“They will be there when we have enough elements to bring these cases to trial. This entity had become accustomed in some other administrations to making pronouncements that ended up falling in court with acquittals. We, and this has been a position shared with the deputy attorney general, have had the clarity to say that if we are going to present cases before the country and bring them before judges to control guarantees, it is not to put on a show, but to achieve sentences. .
And not just sentences, but achieve, as we did in Population centers, or as we have done with the links of corruption of a senator with different municipal actors, to early sentences. This task that we are doing with Medellín is going well and we will end up reaching officials at different levels, in case some of the elements that we have been investigating are confirmed.”
Prosecutor, let’s move on to another issue that worries Antioquia: the Clan del Golfo, the capacity for intimidation they demonstrated in the armed strike and now the plan to kill police officers, what is happening?
“In Colombia so far in 2022 they have killed 50 policemen, of this in Antioquia they have killed 30, between January 1 and July 14. Of those 30 homicides of uniformed men, we have clarified 22 cases, 73.33%”.
What has that enlightenment thrown at them?
“They are the structures of the Clan del Golfo. Those responsible have been charged. We have been accompanying the testimony with technical evidence, and thanks to our criminal analysis system, we have charged the leaders of those structures that have to do with the homicides that were committed in different places in Antioquia.”
Why has the Clan del Golfo dedicated itself to killing policemen?
“When important blows are struck against the leaders of criminal organizations, disorganizations take place within those structures. This destructuring can generate massive confrontations and rupture of agreements that could exist within the organizations, or with people co-opted in the institutions of that region.”
It not only has to do, then, with the extradition of “Otoniel”, but also that it would come from his capture…
“It surely has to do with that extradition, but it also has to do with the restructuring of those organizations and with the breaking of criminal agreements that exist in the regions, which also involves people from the institutional framework.”
Do you have evidence that the Clan del Golfo has co-opted, as you say, part of the institutionality in Antioquia?
“On links or not in issues that have to do with corruption, we are advancing in a very important investigation, which involves some people, officials and members of the Public Force who could have relations with criminal organizations in this department.”
What are you investigating about possible corruption in the Public Force?
“You know what has been happening in the Fourth Brigade, there are open investigations and that investigation has been growing.”
Does it touch high officials?
“It has been growing.”
What do you think of the proposal to bring these gangs to justice?
“I don’t want to enter into making higher assessments, because that is up to the president-elect to decide. I would not like him to get into my constitutional functions, as he would not like me to get into his. When the president-elect makes the decision to advance an initiative that he considers appropriate for subjugation or for peace processes, the attorney general will never be an obstacle to that and what he will do is fulfill his constitutional functions.”
Prosecutor, to close another topic, what happens with the Venezuelan band “Tren de Aragua”, which got completely into Colombia?
“In Bogotá, bodies wrapped in bags and mattresses began to appear, 13 appeared. Criminals leave messages through these types of demonstrations, of territorial control and control of criminal markets. And here we are not talking about an isolated case. We find gangs related to micro-trafficking and bodies in different places in the city.
For this reason, we began to determine who were those who were controlling those markets, if they were Venezuelan citizens who were in Bogotá, and how this distribution of corpses was discriminated against. The investigation said that it had to do with struggles for the territory of micro-trafficking gangs in Bogotá. Two people from the ‘Tren de Aragua’ were captured, accused of torturing and murdering”.
How powerful is that gang?
“He has control of certain places in Bogotá from the point of view of drug sales. We have a major problem in the Santa Fe neighborhood, which is one of the jewels in the crown from the point of view of crime, because it is not only tied to the sale of drugs but also to extortion, cell phone theft, drug trafficking. , to prostitution, to human trafficking. That is to say, a whole holding of criminality”.
Is that gang in Medellin?
“Part of my coming to Medellín has to do with the instruction that I have just given to the new sectional director of Medellín: I need all the cross analysis of crime that exists in the city to determine whether or not we are in the presence of any of those phenomena. criminals, because we cannot let them advance but try to understand them. With that we would work with the administrations, with the municipal, with the Police, with the Dijín, with the Sijín. But what is happening in Bogotá is very serious.”