A judge on Monday sentenced one of the organizers of the murder of Paraguayan prosecutor Marcelo Pecci, which occurred on May 10, 2022 on the beaches near Cartagena de Indias, while he was celebrating his honeymoon with his pregnant wife. This is Margareth Lizeth Chacón who, according to the ruling, participated in the planning of the crime, including its financing, the acquisition of the weapons and the use of her truck for the killers to travel from Medellín to Cartagena. He was convicted of the crimes of aggravated homicide in conjunction with trafficking, manufacture and illegal carrying of firearms. In the coming days, it will be known how many years in prison he will serve.
Chacón, a 42-year-old from Barranquilla, is the partner of businessman Andrés Felipe Pérez Hoyos, who has already accepted his participation in the crime of the anti-mafia prosecutor. Chacón attended four meetings between May 5 and 8, 2022, in which the murder of Pecci, who was investigating transnational organized crime on the continent, was planned.
On May 5, 2022, Chacón, brothers Andrés and Ramón Pérez Hoyos ―both sentenced to 25 years and 6 months in prison― and retired military officer Francisco Luis Correa Galeano ― the main coordinator of the crime and star witness in the case, who accepted charges in April ― met at a restaurant in Medellín. The next day, they all traveled to Cartagena in a white Toyota van with license plates IWV-738, provided by Chacón. On May 7, they arrived in the capital of the department of Bolívar, where, over the next few days, they made multiple trips in the vehicle.
According to the judge, once in Cartagena, Chacón participated in three more meetings in which they planned all the details of the murder: the routes of action, the exact orders and the deliveries of money. Precisely, between May 5 and 8, the Prosecutor's Office alleges that one of the Hoyos brothers made two withdrawals of 3 million pesos (about 800 dollars). On May 9, all the money for the crime was in the hands of Correa Galeano. The next morning he traveled to the Decameron Hotel on the tourist island of Baru, where Pecci's confessed killer, Wendre Still Scott Carrillo, was staying. A few hours later, Scott Carrillo arrived by boat at a beach in Barú and shot the prosecutor three times. Last October, the gunman was sentenced to 23 years and 6 months in prison.
On May 11, 2022, the day after the murder, all participants, including Chacón, gathered in front of the Palmeto Eliptic hotel in Cartagena. There, the last payments were made and Chacón returned to Medellín. It didn't last long in the capital of Antioquia. She went on the run and ended up in El Salvador, where on January 18, 2023, authorities captured her. A few days later, she was transferred to Colombia and, in front of a judge, pleaded not guilty to Pecci's murder.
On Monday, after being convicted in a virtual trial, Chacón reiterated her innocence from the El Buen Pastor prison in Bogota. She insisted that the accusations against her are part of a plot orchestrated by Correa Galeano, and argued that he is pointing to her in order to receive benefits from justice. "Let Colombia know that I have been a passport for Francisco Luis (Correa Galeano), for his freedom. I have never touched weapons, I have no audio, there is nothing that I am accused of," he said. He is the eighth person convicted of Pecci's murder, which was the result of an agreement between criminal gangs from Brazil, Paraguay and Colombia, according to Colombian police.
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