Letter to the American Ambassador
Published in Semana
(Colombia) on 18 September 2010
by María Jimena Duzán (link to original)
Since I know you are busy picking up the loose ends left by your predecessor — a nice ambassador, if a bit clownish for my taste — I’ll get to the point. The intention of this letter is to point out an unfulfilled promise made by the former U.S. ambassador and his government — specifically, Washington’s agreement with the Colombian government to safeguard the right to truth, justice and reparation for the victims of narco-paramilitary bosses who were extradited to your country in 2008.
In that bilateral accord, protocols were established that allowed paramilitary leaders who hadn’t repaid their victims to tell the truth from U.S. prisons. We were told that Colombian prosecutors could use information related to acts of corruption or crimes against humanity committed in the country — information which was provided by drug bosses to U.S. prosecutors. I still remember the certainty and conviction with which not only your predecessor, but also the then-Interior and Justice Minister of Alvaro Uribe’s government, Fabio Valencia Cossio, informed the country in press conferences about the importance and scope of this historic agreement reached between the two governments.
At one point, your predecessor went further and said that the agreement was so serious that the victims of the senior paramilitary leaders could go to the U.S. to reclaim their rights and personally attend the hearings of their victimizers (could they get visas?).
Such was the vigor with which your predecessor made this promise that he went to the extent of risking his reputation, an approach that seemed so out-of-tune and overacted. And although at the time very few of us expressed our reservations about the actual possibilities of an agreement of this magnitude, the majority of Colombia — even the victims — believed in it.
Since then two years have passed, and the promise made by your predecessor has not been met. And it hasn’t been fulfilled for one simple reason, ambassador: With the passage of time, it has been discovered that the bilateral agreement between Washington and Bogota never existed.
This is what not only the drug bosses’ lawyers in the U.S. have claimed, like Joaquin Perez, who has said categorically that the agreement never existed, but also the American prosecutors who aren’t familiar with it and are the ones who — if anyone — should know about its existence. As for the interchange of judicial information that your predecessor promised, it never came, and to this day neither the Colombian prosecutor general nor the court has been able to act on any information provided by declarations made by drug bosses to American prosecutors.
The small advances that have been made in these two years are thanks to the goodwill that exists between the Colombian supreme court and some U.S. prosecutors — not all, just to be clear. Only one year after the paramilitary leaders were extradited, a trip was authorized by supreme court assistant judges to the U.S. to see the men in prison. And those contacts facilitated the few hearings that there have been — in a year, no more than four.
Surprisingly, your government suspended the hearing of Salvatore Mancuso — a top paramilitary leader — scheduled for Sept. 16, in which the case of Mario Uribe was to be heard. The ex-president’s cousin is under investigation for his ties to Mancuso’s paramilitary. The reason given for postponing was that the accused was being transferred to another prison this week, and it was better to reschedule the hearing for Sept. 30.
Mr. Ambassador, the truth about narco-paramilitaries in this country is sitting in American jails. If this truth is buried, the monster of narco-militarism will continue penetrating our institutions until it reaches yours.
In that bilateral accord, protocols were established that allowed paramilitary leaders who hadn’t repaid their victims to tell the truth from U.S. prisons. We were told that Colombian prosecutors could use information related to acts of corruption or crimes against humanity committed in the country — information which was provided by drug bosses to U.S. prosecutors. I still remember the certainty and conviction with which not only your predecessor, but also the then-Interior and Justice Minister of Alvaro Uribe’s government, Fabio Valencia Cossio, informed the country in press conferences about the importance and scope of this historic agreement reached between the two governments.
At one point, your predecessor went further and said that the agreement was so serious that the victims of the senior paramilitary leaders could go to the U.S. to reclaim their rights and personally attend the hearings of their victimizers (could they get visas?).
Such was the vigor with which your predecessor made this promise that he went to the extent of risking his reputation, an approach that seemed so out-of-tune and overacted. And although at the time very few of us expressed our reservations about the actual possibilities of an agreement of this magnitude, the majority of Colombia — even the victims — believed in it.
Since then two years have passed, and the promise made by your predecessor has not been met. And it hasn’t been fulfilled for one simple reason, ambassador: With the passage of time, it has been discovered that the bilateral agreement between Washington and Bogota never existed.
This is what not only the drug bosses’ lawyers in the U.S. have claimed, like Joaquin Perez, who has said categorically that the agreement never existed, but also the American prosecutors who aren’t familiar with it and are the ones who — if anyone — should know about its existence. As for the interchange of judicial information that your predecessor promised, it never came, and to this day neither the Colombian prosecutor general nor the court has been able to act on any information provided by declarations made by drug bosses to American prosecutors.
The small advances that have been made in these two years are thanks to the goodwill that exists between the Colombian supreme court and some U.S. prosecutors — not all, just to be clear. Only one year after the paramilitary leaders were extradited, a trip was authorized by supreme court assistant judges to the U.S. to see the men in prison. And those contacts facilitated the few hearings that there have been — in a year, no more than four.
Surprisingly, your government suspended the hearing of Salvatore Mancuso — a top paramilitary leader — scheduled for Sept. 16, in which the case of Mario Uribe was to be heard. The ex-president’s cousin is under investigation for his ties to Mancuso’s paramilitary. The reason given for postponing was that the accused was being transferred to another prison this week, and it was better to reschedule the hearing for Sept. 30.
Mr. Ambassador, the truth about narco-paramilitaries in this country is sitting in American jails. If this truth is buried, the monster of narco-militarism will continue penetrating our institutions until it reaches yours.