This will be the Office of the Attorney General’s roadmap during 2020 and 2024. It prioritizes the crimes that affect citizens the most and generate a greater demand. It promotes a more technological, innovative, and capable institution. 

The Strategic Direction – Results: ‘en la Calle y en los Territorios’ (‘Near the streets and territories’) presented by the Attorney General, Francisco Barbosa Delgado, prioritizes aspects to move forward towards the  effective fight against the different forms of crime and comprehensively defines the horizon of the institution between 2020 – 2024.  

The action fronts established in this plan contemplate the new reality posed by the pandemic and include guidelines of ‘Direccionamiento en Tiempos de Covid-19’, which is in force and has yielded good results. Likewise, these fronts meet the citizens’ urgent need to see conclusive results regarding the crimes that affect them and establish parameters to structure a modern Office of the Attorney General that serves as an entrance door to justice.  

The analysis of the behavior of crimes, the continuous challenges posed by crime, and the positive results obtained during this year, made it possible to set four major strategic objectives on which the efforts of the 25,000 public servants of the  Office of the  Attorney General will be focused.  

OBJECTIVE 1. To increase the clarification of crimes that affect public safety and rural areas 

There are behaviors that, due to their high impact and complexity, represent greater concern in terms of public safety. Therefore, they were prioritized. They are: 

  • This crime has had a downward trend during the last decade in Colombia, however, the national rate is 25 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants. An average that remains high, even more so when higher rates occur in some municipalities in Tarazá and Cáceres (Antioquia), Corinto and Argelia (Cauca). 

The Office of the Attorney General will prioritize the investigation of these events and the criminal punishment of those responsible for these acts thanks to coordinated actions and strategic plans in the regions and cities where they take place.  

The crimes against human rights defenders and populations with special constitutional protection have been prioritized. In 2020, between February and October, the clarification of homicides of social leaders went from 52% to about 61%. This is the result of a coordinated work of the Special Investigation Unit, the Delegate Offices and Directorates of the Office of the Attorney General, and the creation of interdisciplinary groups.  

In this sense, the Strategic Direction 2020-2024 reaffirms this investigative methodology with a territorial approach to have a greater understanding of the facts in the context that they occur. This strategy to address homicides, will also be implemented in cases of crimes committed against people in the process of reincorporation and their families. 

There will be special emphasis on collective homicides. The Comprehensive Intervention Units (Unidades de Intervención Integral) established by the Attorney General, Francisco Barbosa Delgado, will remain in order to learn the truth about these actions and to exceed the clarification average, which  is 61.4% today. 

Femicide was also prioritized. In this regard, the Office of the Attorney General´s capacities will be focused on solving the cases registered in non-intimate settings, such as: family members, by connection, systemic sexual scenarios, linked to organized networks, sexual exploitation or stigmatized occupations, human trafficking, transphobia and lesbophobia.  

• To increase the clarification of crimes of domestic violence and sexual violence against women, children and teenagers. In any of these cases, the Office of the Attorney General will guarantee prompt assistance concerning a criminal complaint and will seek victims’ protection. Priority will be given to risky circumstances or recidivism of the offense by the aggressor. 

• The efforts to combat theft, the crime with the highest prevalence in Colombia, will be maximized: The investigations will analyze patterns in order to dismantle criminal organizations linked to this crime. 

• The retail sale of drugs, a criminal business that triggers several problems of public safety in the country, is led by organized networks and gangs which will be structurally dismantled and through joint plans with the National Police. 

• One of the commitments of the Strategic Direction 2020-2024 is the attention of crimes that threaten life and physical and emotional integrity of animals, by strengthening the Special Group for the Fight against Animal Abuse (Grupo Especial para la Lucha contra el Maltrato Animal GELMA) and its joint work with the Sectional Offices and the National Police. 

• Access to data or information systems, and crimes committed through computer systems, are of high importance to the Office of the Attorney General due to: an  increase in the number of criminal complaints, the rise of new technologies and the use of virtual resources in times of pandemic. The receipt, investigation and identification of those people responsible for these cases are a priority. 

OBJECTIVE 2. To directly attack criminal organizations and economies 

According to analyzes carried out by the Office of the Attorney General, in 2019 there was presence of criminal organizations in 594 municipalities, that is, in 52.89% of the national territory. Additionally, 88% of the coca fields are located in municipalities where these groups operate.  

Thus, this is extremely important to fight organized crime and emerging structures, as well as, pursuing  illegal resources used to support  their armed and destabilizing components. 

• High value objectives. The Office of the Attorney General will direct its investigative activity to locate and prosecute the main leaders of organized crime and the main coordinators of homicides and attacks against human rights defenders, drug trafficking, illegal mining and smuggling activities. 

• The implementation of judicial mechanisms to facilitate the access to vital information to dismantle these organizations will be improved, and an effective application of the criminal types to obtain an exemplary sanction will also be carried out.The Office of the Attorney General will strengthen its front lines to affect the illegal sources of financing, drug trafficking, in its production stages, and pursuing illegal assets. The processes of assets seizure and the methodology of economic-financial analysis of the crime will be strengthened, and a joint work will be carried out  with entities such as the Financial Information and Analysis Unit (Unidad de Información y Análisis Financiero UIAF) to decipher money laundering schemes, to identify and prosecute front men. 

• Intervention plans in critical areas. The groups of prosecutors and investigators will reach territories affected by organized crime. These plans will have coordinated strategies, and for specific periods of time to simultaneously prosecute the crimes that these structures use to intimidate population. 

• Fight against drug trafficking. The Strategic Direction 2020-2024 considers as a priority to pursuit drug trafficking networks with a territorial approach to impact their components in the regions and coastal areas, and through international cooperation to neutralize their transnational scope. 

• Environmental crimes, deforestation and illegal mining will be investigated with accuracy and will be a priority until the optimal penalization of those people  responsible. We will increase awareness of the serious damage to ecosystems and, the Office of the Attorney General will broaden ties of international cooperation with other nations affected by these scourges in order to improve its response capacity. 

• Urban terrorism. Being aware of the criminal reasons of the illegal armed groups to infiltrate social protest and to instill destabilization and terrorism components to the cities, the Office of the Attoney General will assign special task forces to arrest the members of the structures involved in these activities and achieve their prosecution. 

OBJECTIVE 3. To increase the prosecution of crimes against the public administration 

Between 2015 and 2019, the Office of the Attorney General handled 192,266 crime reports related to corruption and reached a clarification rate of 38% of the prioritized events. This average shows the need for greater efforts to increase clarification rates. 

• Strengthening investigations. In the next four years, emphasis will be put on investigations about corruption in sectors such as health, education, environment, electoral, public procurement, and the administration of justice. The Office of the Attorney General will assign special teams in the  regions to receive criminal  complaints related to crimes against the public administration where surveillance of State resources is scarce and the recruitment of public servants by criminal organizations is high. 

• Alliances will be made to strengthen the capacities of the Office of the Attorney General´s staff by resorting to expertise of some entities to move forward in the cases, and achieve comprehensive investigations with expert institutions on specific matters. 

• The surveillance of the resources allocated to face the health emergency caused by Covid-19 will continue. 

• The Office of the Attorney General will insist on imposing precautionary measures such as suspension of power to alienate a property and a seizure process on properties of those responsible for the acts of corruption identified in the investigations. 

• Prioritization of facts which involve people with constitutional immunity. 

OBJECTIVE 4. To equip the Office of the Attorney General with the appropriate physical infrastructure according to its needs 

As part of the process that started in 2020, the strengthening of the physical infrastructure of the Office of the Attorney General will continue. This includes the construction of headquarters in the sectional Offices with the higher demand of justice, as well as the conclusion of constructions that have already begun. 

The institution will promote the public servants’ competencies, abilities and skills, as well as the continuous training in regard to the objectives defined in the Strategic Direction 2020 – 2024, taking advantage of the virtual era due to Covid-19 pandemic. 

Likewise, there will be a group of prosecutors, investigators and experts with vocation that will train a highly qualified, efficient and effective staff in judicial matters to be capable of assuming responsibilities of retired public servants or assuming other functions. 

In order to comply with Strategic Direction 2020 – 2024, seven transversal actions were defined according to the objectives set. Among these actions,  it stands out the consolidation of  the Office of the Attorney General as an international example to reach judicial and technical cooperation agreements to increase the capacities of the institution, to strengthen and increase the judicial police personnel. 

Currently, the entity has presence in 486 municipalities, and seeks to guarantee a greater territorial presence with trained personnel and itinerant groups available to react and meet the requirements of remote populations. 

The Office of the Attorney General will be more modern. The electronic file will be implemented and access to justice will be expanded through multiple channels of assistance to receive criminal complaints: phone, email, Adenunciar application, in which crimes such as gender- based violence were included.