A very difficult knot to untangle.
This is the legal situation of former paramilitary commander Salvatore Mancuso.
And the transitional justice known as the Special Jurisdiction for Peace, or JEP, today published a decision that could further entangle him or begin the process of untangling him.
Its appeals section decided, this Monday, that that jurisdiction prevails over another special court, called Justice and Peace, to shoulder the legal investigations against Mancuso for events that occurred between 1989 and 2004, and above all to decide whether this former commander may be released during the judicial process.
“The conduct committed by Salvatore Mancuso Gómez from 1989 to 2004 falls within the exclusive and prevalent jurisdiction of the JEP.
This leads to a suspension of the processes in Justice and Peace;
but not of all, because the investigative power continues,” said Judge Rodolfo Arango, of the appeals chamber, this Monday in a press conference that sought to present and explain the decision, dated last Wednesday, March 13.
Rodolfo Arango, this Monday. Carlos Ortega (EFE)
The JEP, which was born due to the Peace Agreement between the State and the extinct FARC in 2016, agreed to host Mancuso in 2023 for having served as a "hinge" between the paramilitary groups and the military.
The former commander must now contribute to the truth in several cases involving the public force.
Justice and Peace, on the other hand, is a court that was born from the agreement between the paramilitaries and the State in 2004, and has investigated former paramilitaries since then.
By saying that it prevails over Justice and Peace, the first court attempts to unravel the knot that Mancuso himself announced when he returned two weeks ago from the United States, where he served a sentence for drug trafficking: the legal insecurity that being in the JEP and Justice and Peace gives him. Peace at the same time.
“I am aware that my return is a challenge for the transitional mechanisms of judging and interjurisdictional cooperation,” he said upon returning.
“The room for defining legal situations [of the JEP] is the only authority that (...) by virtue of the prevalent and exclusive constitutional jurisdiction of the JEP, must decide on the freedom of Mr. Salvatore Mancuso,” said the president. of the appeals section, Patricia Linares.
Although this would seem to untie the knot, last week, while the JEP magistrates were making this decision, those from Justice and Peace were discussing another legal issue regarding Mancuso.
A Barranquilla judge in that jurisdiction determined that the former commander could not be released because he has security measures against him in that jurisdiction.
Furthermore, he argued that Mancuso cannot be a peace manager either, a position in which the Government of Gustavo Petro appointed him to serve as a facilitator in the dialogues that he carries out with the illegal group known as Clan del Golfo.
Mancuso appealed that decision, which must now be reviewed by the Supreme Court of Justice.
It may be that ordinary justice, to which Justice and Peace belongs, accepts the prevalence that the JEP demands, and from this begins a coordination process so that Mancuso's freedom and processes happen mostly in the JEP.
But we still have to wait if Justice and Peace accepts this change and what the Supreme Court determines in the appeal.
The Colombian transitional justice system “is a complex system, but it has its communicating vessels,” Judge Arango said at a press conference, hoping that there will be harmonious coordination between the different jurisdictions with Mancuso's hot potato.
For now, President Petro celebrated the decision.
“I think it's excellent,” he said on the social network definitive, closing.
“There must be a single court of closure of the truth.
Judicial investigative processes cannot be fragmented into various investigative units because that leads to impunity,” the president added.
I think this decision is excellent.
There must be a single closing court of truth.
Judicial investigative processes cannot be fragmented into various investigative units because that leads to impunity.
The truth is the prelude to national reconciliation… https://t.co/kgEYhcGHWp
— Gustavo Petro (@petrogustavo) March 18, 2024
This court that the former armed actors have proposed would not be one that includes only those who had weapons in their hands, but also includes civilians who committed crimes during the armed conflict, or are among those most responsible for the war.
For now, that future seems very distant when the Mancuso case, among many, is still a hot potato between the JEP and Justice and Peace.
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