Prosecutor General Luz Adriana Camargo vowed to try hundreds of businesses that financed the creation and human rights violations of paramilitary groups during Colombia’s armed conflict.
Camargo made the promise at a conference on transitional justice in which she vowed that her office will pay “the debts of this model of justice and peace to society.”
The main priority, said the chief prosecutor, was the effective prosecution of “the most economically powerful third-party financiers” that have been mentioned by demobilized former members of the now-defunct paramilitary organization AUC in the past two decades.
Camargo also announced increased efforts to confiscate assets of those who profiteered from the war and vowed success in “the finding and identification of victims of forced disappearance.”
We are aware that the main debts of this model of justice and peace with society are concentrated in the lack of results in the investigation of the financiers of paramilitarism, in the pursuit of assets for the purpose of reparations to victims, and the finding and identification of the victims of forced disappearance.
Prosecutor General Luz Adriana Camargo
The chief prosecutor said that her office had begun strengthening its Transitional Justice Directorate in order to investigate war crimes and crimes against humanity for effectively.
This reorganization would allow the prosecution to effectively comply with “more than 700 investigation orders” related to corporations and businessmen that financed the creation of the AUC and in some cases benefited from paramilitary war crimes.
In order to confiscate assets of war profiteers, Camargo said that the prosecution would use “artificial intelligence to track assets and accounts… in tax havens” in addition to conventional investigation methods.
Among the most economically powerful corporations that allegedly financed paramilitary groups are renowned brands like Coca Cola, Postobon and the predecessor of Colombia’s largest bank, Bancolombia.
Former prosecutors general made similar announcements, but failed to effectively investigate the alleged links between corporations and designated terrorism organizations.
