Colombia’s former Prosecutor General Luis Camilo Osorio Isaza reportedly has to respond for his alleged ties to paramilitary groups. Almost ten years after I denounced him and subsequently was forced to flee the country.
When Osorio took office in 2001, I was an agent of the CTI, the technical investigation unit of the Prosecutor General’s Office, and in charge of an investigation into paramilitary infiltration in Colombian state entities ordered by then-prosecutor Amelia Perez Parra.
The prosecutor, who was later forced to live in exile just like me, ordered me to perform a cross-check of prosecutors’ personal telephone numbers with those found in a digital agenda seized during a search of the home of AUC commander Jorge Ivan Laverde Zapata, alias “Iguana.”
Iguana is held responsible of 7,000 crimes in Colombia. His electronic diary contained private phone numbers of public employees working in all kinds of public institutions.
The investigation analyzed 131 phone numbers of incoming calls and 117 phone numbers of outgoing calls made by paramilitaries to public employees who have been collaborating with them. Also, transcripts of 167 telephone numbers belonging to paramilitaries were extracted from judicial files.
Following the technical crossover of 326.097 records in databases, I identified 109 paramilitary infiltrators in the Prosecutor General’s Office and 131 paramilitary infiltrators in the National Police, the National Army, the now-defunct intelligence agency DAS, prison authority INPEC and Colombia’s Congress.
I also discovered that Osorio had hired several prosecutors who later were involved in cases of ties with paramilitaries, drug trafficking and other criminal offenses.
Some of these prosecutors and judicial employees are
- Diego Rojas Giron
former director of prosecutors in the Valle del Cauca department – Paramilitary ties - Jorge Enrique Chamorro
former prosecutor in Cali – Prevarication - Diana Motta Perez
former prosecutor in Buga – Prevarication - Edgar Restrepo Hamburger
former CTI Agent – Prevarication - Ana Maria Florez Silva
former director of prosecutors in Cucuta – Paramilitary ties - Perla Davila
former director of prosecutors of the Córdoba department – Paramilitary ties - Guillermo Valencia Cossio
former director of prosecutors in Medellin – Drug trafficking - Lucio Pabon
former director of the witness protection program of the Prosecutor General’s Office – Paramilitary ties - Justo Pastor Rodríguez
former national director of prosecutors on Bogota and designed prosecutor to the Supreme Court of Justice – Illicit enrichment - Andres Ramirez Moncayo
former deputy Prosecutor General – Corruption - Carlos Hernando Arias Pineda
former national director of prosecutors on Bogota – Sexual harassment.
According to Colombia Reports, “aside from paramilitary infiltration and influence on his office, Osorio is expected to answer questions about the murders of prosecutors Rosario Silba and Carlos Arturo Pinto and section investigator David Corzo. All three murders took place during Osorio’s time in office.”
I was the detective assigned to investigate these murders and found the perpetrator: Bocanegra Orlando Arteaga, alias “Viejo Boca.”
Human Rights Watch asserted in 2002 already that Osorio had undermined investigations of right-wing paramilitary groups by firing or transferring prosecutors, particularly those working on cases in which military officers were believed to have assisted the groups in mass killings or assassinations.
I was one of those fired prosecution officials.
After my extensive investigation, the Prosecutor General ordered my dismissal and he filed false accusations to silence me. I was unfairly sentenced as result of this false accusation made by Osorio and his lawyer Jaime Granados, who is also the lawyer of the former president Alvaro Uribe.
Osorio publicly and falsely accused me of having given classified information to then-Senator Gustavo Petro, who is now the Mayor of Bogota.
Granados falsely told to the media that I illegally intercepted communications. This argument is also totally false, because the information related to the phone data belonged to existing judicial files. The judicial order assigned to me was to take the information already in the judicial files and perform cross reference using two databases that I designed to make this process easier in order to find paramilitary infiltrators.
Since 2002, the judicial files about the investigation against Osorio, have been in hands of the Congress’ Accusations Commission. However, this commission at that time was also infiltrated by paramilitaries and some of the evidence got lost while judicial files were altered.
Who was in charge of Osorio’s investigation at the Commission of Accusations at that time?
- Representative Jorge Luis Feris Chadid
brother of paramilitary leader Salomon Feris Chadid known as “08”, sentenced to 40 years in prison for the 1996 massacre of Pichilin, Sucre. - Representative German Olano
then-president of the Accusations Commission and now in jail over a multimillion corruption case.
Nine and a half years after I denounced the former Prosecutor General, the “parapolitical” power structure has successfully obstructed justice and Osorio is still not in prison.
Osorio’s case is one of many, but I am sure it is one of the most important.
The International Criminal Court has been in written contact with me twice. It has been following the complaint that I presented to them about this critical situation in Colombia. However, so far Osorio has been part of the Colombian Impunity or “Impunidad Colombiana”.
Links
- Some of the evidence of paramilitary infiltration sent to Congress and the International Criminal Court
- My video (in Spanish) on the Osorio case
Maxima Infiltracion Paramilitar en Colombia – @hackerFiscalia lo denuncio from Richard Maok Riano Botina on Vimeo.
