Colombia’s Prosecutor General’s Office has increasingly come over fire over top prosecutors’ alleged involvement in covering up organized crime.
The mushrooming corruption scandal involves deputy Prosecutor General Martha Marcena and multiple other top prosecutors and police officials.
The prosecutors and cops are alleged to be favoring senior mafia figures and paramilitary organization AGC.
The scandal initially broke in February when the prosecution’s former financial crimes chief, Ana Catalina Noguera, was arrested on corruption charges together with the former chief of the National Police’s international cooperation unit, Colonel Ricardo Duran.
Colombia arrests prosecution’s former financial crimes chief
Narcos implicated in Noguera case
- Carlos Ramon Zapata, a.k.a. “El Medico”
Former member of the Medellin Cartel and paramilitary group “Los Pepes” - Gabriel Puerta
Former member of the Medellin Cartel - Ignacio Alvarez, a.k.a. “Big Brother”
Former member of the Norte del Valle Cartel - Cifuentes Clan
Former members of the Medellin Cartel and the Sinaloa Cartel - Enrique Baez, a.k.a. “Horse”
Former Norte del Valle Cartel associate - Julio Lozano, a.k.a. “Patricia”
Money launderer - Angel Seda
Money launderer
The key witness in the Noguera trial, former Medellin Cartel drug trafficker “El Medico,” additionally accused Mancera, the prosecution’s alleged “judicial hitman,” Daniel Hernandez, and former anti-corruption prosecutor Daniel Cardona of ties to multiple mafia figures.
A senior prosecution investigator, Fernando Rodrigo Romero, accused Hernandez of also blocking a 2021 request to arrest 14 reported businessmen for their alleged involvement in more than 20 assassinations in the northern Magdalena an Cesar provinces.
Is Daniel Hernandez Colombia’s most corrupt prosecutor in history?
According to investigative journalism website La Nueva Prensa, the alleged paramilitary ringleaders have been involved in more than 200 homicides.
In a press conference, Mancera defended her controversial subordinate and claimed that there exists no list of 200 homicides, which Romero claims is due to failures to follow up on tips by informers and victims.
The prosecution denied La Nueva Prensa access to the press conference and only admitted television program Noticias Uno after allegations Mancera would only talk to media considered loyal.
Despite the multiple corruption allegations, neither Mancera nor Hernandez have been linked to the internal investigation carried out by prosecutor Mario Burgos.
