Originally published in Confidencial Colombia.
Three months before the 2022 legislative elections and less than six months before the presidential elections, there is a deepening concern that the necessary guarantees in a democracy for the full participation of opposition candidates do not exist.
In April 2021, the Attorney General’s Office, led by Francisco Barbosa, took out of the drawer the celebration of a debt unification contract signed by Sergio Fajardo -governor of Antioquia from 2012 to 2015, currently a presidential candidate in second place in the polls- for US$77 million dollars with Corpbanca in 2013. For the Prosecutor’s Office, there is a patrimonial detriment because, a few years later, that contract is costing the department much more money, and that is why charges were announced. The Prosecutor’s Office said that the former governor failed because “there was no projection that warned about the volatility of the dollar, nor was the contracting with an exchange risk insurance”. In other words, since the dollar rose so much in price, the contract ended up costing more and this should have been foreseen by the official.
This week, the Decision Chamber of the Fiscal and Sanctioning Chamber of the Office of the Comptroller General of the Republic confirmed, in second instance, the decision of last September 3, which declared Fajardo and another twenty officials and contractors as responsible for irregularities. These are damages to the national patrimony amounting to $4.3 billion pesos attributable to the investments made in the Hidroituango project and also for not complying with the project’s start-up date.
The Comptroller’s Office states that in Hidroituango an “acceleration plan” was implemented in the middle of which decisions were made that generated the contingency of 2018, when one of the tunnels of the auxiliary gallery of detour collapsed, which in turn generated an environmental and fiscal risk, and forced the diversion of water to the Cauca River through the powerhouse to avoid greater damage. According to the Comptroller’s Office, the actions or omissions of those sanctioned led to damage to the State’s patrimony due to the unjustified major investments made, “as a result of having made improvised decisions omitting the principle of planning, and committing the resources of the treasury without taking into account their duty to maintain the public patrimony unharmed”.
In response to the decision, presidential pre-candidate Sergio Fajardo announced in a press conference on Tuesday, November 30, that he will request precautionary measures to protect his political rights before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).
The governor of Magdalena, Carlos Eduardo Caicedo Omar, left the country with his family on August 19, 2021 because he was going to be assassinated. According to the complaint in possession of the Attorney General’s Office since August 25, in a cell phone conversation, Ríchard Maok Riaño Botina ‘hackerfiscalía’, informed Caicedo on August 14 of a plan led by the “Gulf clan” and “orchestrated by the ultra-right” to assassinate him.
Mr. Moak Riaño is a former official of the CTI of the Attorney General’s Office, exiled in Canada, convicted by the Supreme Court for leaking confidential information, and known for asking for donations in exchange for supposed investigations. The information he shared was passed by Governor Caicedo to the commander of the Second Army Brigade and to the commanders of the Police in Magdalena, and was analyzed in a meeting on August 17. Two days later, the Magdalena governor left the country with his family, but on September 8 he was forced to return to Colombia.
On the day of his return to Colombia, the Colombia-Europe-United States Coordination, the Colombian Platform for Human Rights, Democracy and Development, and the Alliance of Social and Related Organizations, demanded in a statement to the President of the Republic, Iván Duque Márquez, to provide human rights guarantees so that Carlos Caicedo can continue his work as governor of Magdalena.
The Luis Alfonso Echavarría substructure of the criminal group Autodefensas Gaitanistas de Colombia, AGC, operates in Magdalena Medio. According to Santa Marta councilmen, two members of the clan visited the governor’s office asking for the governor and some of his cabinet members.
The IACHR, on September 2, asked the Duque Government for information on the results of the investigations that have been carried out into the allegations made regarding the plan to assassinate the Governor and his security detail. He gave him 10 days to send a detailed response on the security measures taken to protect the governor’s life.
It is very delicate that in the middle of the pre-electoral campaign a member of the opposition Alianza Verde party is forced to announce that he will go to the IACHR due to lack of guarantees, and that the head of the leftist movement Fuerza Ciudadana Carlos Caicedo and his family had to leave the country untimely due to threats. It is also extremely serious that the criminal plan against Caicedo includes Senator and presidential candidate Gustavo Petro of Colombia Humana and the Historical Pact, who is leading the polls for the Colombian presidency, which worries and frightens some members of the right and the left.
Although it is unusual for an elected and incumbent official to be forced to resort to the IACHR, it is not the first time. On May 6, 2003, the Commission granted precautionary measures (MC-497-03) in favor of Guillermo Alfonso Jaramillo Martínez, Governor of the Department of Tolima, due to threats from the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, AUC, which were present in that department.
It should be recalled that Senator Petro has had precautionary measures from the IACHR since 2002 (MC-303-02 – Colombia) to protect his life and personal integrity and that of his family. These measures are still in force due to the continuous threats and harassment against him that continue to this day. Direct threats have also affected several members of his family, for which reason they have been forced to leave the country.
Petro also went to the IACHR at the end of 2013 (MC-394-13) to prevent his removal and disqualification as Mayor of the city of Bogota, a sanction imposed by the Attorney General of the Nation at that time, Francisco Ordoñez Maldonado, and which was enforced by President Juan Manuel Santos, in clear disregard of the IACHR’s orders, arguing that the measures did not bind the Colombian State. These measures were requested in case 13.044 of the IACHR, which culminated in the condemnatory sentence of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights of July 8, 2020 against the State of Colombia.
Selective physical elimination and judicial, disciplinary and prosecutorial persecution are part of the political and legal warfare implemented by certain establishment actors to eliminate political opponents and opponents. Colombia has a long experience with these practices. When the Attorney General’s Office, the Ombudsman’s Office, the Comptroller General’s Office and the Prosecutor General’s Office are the pocket organs of President Iván Duque, there is no guarantee of independence and impartiality of the control and investigation bodies. For many, it is already evident that the aim is to remove opponents from the political and democratic game in order to win the elections and screw the ruler and his party in power, regardless of human rights. The Duque government has the burden of proof to prove otherwise.
