The Attorney General’s Office is currently undergoing a silent process of transformation and renewal aimed, among other things, at attacking the structure of criminal organizations operating in Colombia and that have an impact in other countries. We have strengthened internal institutional coordination and international judicial cooperation, because we know that crime is a threat that has no boundaries.

In the framework of the Thirty-Second Ordinary General Assembly of the Ibero-American Organization of Public Prosecutors (AIAMP), we signed cooperation agreements and established joint investigation teams with Chile, Paraguay, Bolivia, and Panama last Friday. These agreements are the roadmap for a multilateral agenda that combines the criminal prosecution capabilities of various Latin American and Caribbean countries, and that counts on the collaboration of Spain, Portugal, Andorra, Italy, the Netherlands, and, more recently, countries such as Serbia and Albania, affected by the scourges of drug trafficking and human trafficking.

We have noticed that this fight against corruption and criminality within and outside the country is generating an unprecedented counterattack against the institution’s public servants and the Attorney General’s Office itself. The decision that was announced yesterday by the Public Prosecutor’s Office in Guatemala is just another example of this.

As stated by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, Margaret Satterthwaite, at the end of her visit to Guatemala on May 23, there are serious institutional concerns regarding the leadership of the Prosecutor’s Office in that country since 2018, due to the alleged abuse of disciplinary law to sanction the heads of specialized units that knew about corruption, human rights, or transitional justice cases, sometimes at key moments in high-profile cases, or regarding prosecutors in charge of particularly sensitive investigations or with political connections, which raises concerns about pressure or retaliation for the work carried out in these matters.

The UN senior official also mentioned the existence of an alarming pattern in which criminal law is used to intimidate and silence the voices of those who protect human rights, combat corruption, or question the established powers such as 60 justice operators, journalists, indigenous authorities, student leaders, and members of nomination committees, accused of numerous repeated and overlapping legal actions based on imprecise events and for general offenses, such as abuse of authority or obstruction of justice.

In this context, we learned about the decision made by the Third Chamber of Appeals of Guatemala, which constitutes a flagrant violation of the terms of the agreement between the United Nations and the Government of Guatemala regarding the creation of the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (Comisión Internacional Contra la Impunidad en Guatemala CICIG), of which I served from 2014 to 2017 as head of the Investigation and Litigation Department.

The article 10 of that agreement, signed in New York on December 12, 2006, establishes that the Commissioner and the international staff of the CICIG “shall enjoy immunity from criminal, civil, and administrative jurisdiction in accordance with the Vienna Convention” on Diplomatic Relations in 1961. Moreover, it includes immunity from arrest or detention and immunity from all judicial action with respect to acts committed in a mission, even “…after the delegation has ceased to serve the CICIG.”

In this sense, the Tribunal’s decision does not recognize the parameters of international law and human rights, and lacks of legal basis, and jeopardizes the determined collaboration between countries and international organizations to combat impunity, corruption, and the criminal scourges that weaken democracies. 

It is based on a decontextualized interpretation of the achievements in the Odebrecht case by the Special Prosecutor’s Office against Impunity in Guatemala, led by its then chief, Juan Francisco Sandoval Alfaro, accompanied by national and international CICIG personnel, including myself. In that case, an investigation methodology was implemented and developed that made it possible to track and document the route of the money given as bribes by the Brazilian construction company to high-ranking officials of Guatemala. The accuracy and solidity of that investigation produced a reaction from the corrupt officials who are involved and want to discredit it.

Therefore, beyond the immunity that protects me and prevents the issuance of the international arrest warrant that was assumed as processed yesterday, without being issued and that will not be issued, taking into account the statement made by the government of Guatemala rejecting the request made by from the Public Prosecutor’s Office of that country, I am confident of my innocence regarding the facts attributed to me with political bias.

The actions brought into question, such as the exchange of emails or the meetings to discuss the terms of effective collaboration to which Odebrecht’s executives were subjected, were the basis for the release of important information about the recipients of the bribes and the multinational’s commitment to compensate the State of Guatemala with 16.5 million dollars for the acts of corruption.

Immunity does not mean impunity: of course, I can be investigated, but only under the procedures of international due process. It is more harmful to spread rumors and to question my conduct, which cannot be questioned either at that time or now. 

I appeal for common sense, respect for the commitments made under the United Nations Charter, and the consolidation of legitimate paths of collaboration, far from the criminalization of those fighting corruption, as warned about a week ago by the UN Special Rapporteur Margaret Satterthwait.

I am grateful for the unconditional support of those who believe in institutions.

 

LUZ ADRIANA CAMARGO GARZÓN

Attorney General