An opinion piece appeared in El Espectador on 30 December 2021 written by Gustavo Gallon explaining why it is essential that paramilitary boss and commander of the ‘Clan del Golfo‘, Dairo Antonio Úsuga David, alias “Otoniel”, testifies before the Colombian Justice System before being extradited on drugs trafficking charges. The original can be found here. Below is an unofficial translation of that opinion piece.
Talking about vermin
It is certainly good news that the commander of what the government calls the Clan del Golfo, Dairo Antonio Úsuga David, alias “Otoniel”, has been deprived of his liberty. This successor group to paramilitarism has carried out multiple murders, displacements and all kinds of crimes.
However, it is striking that his arrest was under an extradition warrant for drug trafficking. According to Semana, there are “128 arrest warrants, seven convictions, as well as eight custodial measures” against Otoniel. Therefore why did the extradition request prevail over them? Why does the Government want to extradite Otoniel at all costs, before responding to justice in Colombia for the numerous crimes perpetrated, many of them against humanity?
There is no doubt that the seriousness of drug trafficking pales in the face of the crimes of genocide, homicide of protected person, disappearance and forced displacement, torture, and other crimes, committed in recent decades by members of demobilized paramilitary groups.
This is not what the legislation and jurisprudence in the country orders. In 2009, the Supreme Court of Justice has made clearly rulings in this regard, as well as warning that “recent experience show that extraditions granted and executed by the State have paralyzed the knowledge of the truth in the Justice and Peace process, given that the extradited postulates have not been able to continue confessing the crimes committed. And thus, the victims are being left without knowing the truth and society without guarantees of non-repetition”. In addition, it specified that “there is no doubt that the seriousness of drug trafficking pales in the face of the crimes of genocide, homicide of a protected person, disappearance and forced displacement, torture, and others, committed in recent decades by members of demobilized paramilitary groups.” This is why the Court denied the request for the extradition of alias Comandante Chaparro (radicado 30451, MP Yesid Ramírez Bastidas, ag. 18/09).
For its part, the Constitutional Court has established when deciding on the possibility of extradition, the authorities “must weigh the duty of international cooperation in the fight against crime with constitutional values and principles such as peace, the rights of the victims and the international obligation to investigate and prosecute grave human rights violations and grave breaches of IHL ”(env. C-080/18). In turn, in the Exposición de Motivos de la ley estatutaria 1957 de 2019 (Statement of Motives of the statutory law 1957 of 2019) it was made clear that the country’s experience “has shown that the extradition of those responsible for atrocious crimes in the framework of the armed conflict satisfies the justice of foreign countries in their it fights against drug trafficking, but ignores the rights of victims in Colombia”(Gaceta del Congreso No. 626 of 2017).
[the authorities] must weigh the duty of international cooperation in the fight against crime with constitutional values and principles such as peace, the rights of the victims and the international obligation to investigate and prosecute grave human rights violations and grave breaches of IHL
Due to all of the above, the Supreme Court of Justice, when recently authorizing the extradition of a demobilized member of FARC, accused of drug trafficking for acts committed after the Peace Agreement, delayed its decision for six months to allow him to complete the process before the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP file 57319, MP Patricia Salazar Cuéllar, November 17/21). It is clear, then, that alias Otoniel, should not be extradited before he has responded before Colombian justice for crimes committed in Colombia, as this would violate the rights of the victims and could lead to the intervention of the International Criminal Court.