Unless Colombia’s government extradites “Otoniel” to the United States, the captured warlord will likely spend the rest of his life in prison.

According to the prosecution, the long-time commander of paramilitary group AGC had been sentenced to six prison sentences, including one of 50 years and another of 40.

Otoniel’s convictions

• Homicide
• Forced disappearance
• Forced displacement
• Recruitment of minors

Pending charges in Colombia

• Recruitment of minors
• Conspiracy to commit a crime
• Terrorism
• Illegal weapons
• Drug trafficking

Since its formation in 2006, the group that would later become the AGC has been held responsible for the majority of human rights violation in Colombia.

Otoniel will unlikely make it out of prison alive unless the warlord is extradited to the United States, where the long-time paramilitary commander is only facing drug trafficking charges.

Colombia’s most embarrassing manhunt since Pablo Escobar

Will Otoniel evade lengthy prison sentence?

Whether the captured AGC chief will be extradited depends on the president and the Supreme Court who can both block  extradition requests.

The extradition of captured paramilitary leaders is a sensitive issue in Colombia.

According to victim organizations and lawmakers, the government has extradited former paramilitaries to conceal authorities’ involvement in organized crime and terrorism.

Extradition forms part of the Colombian government strategy… to frustrate the rights of victims, and promote impunity for those most responsible for the crimes committed by paramilitary groups over the past 25 years: politicians at local, regional and national level, members of the Colombian Armed Forces, State officials, corporations and large landowners.

Judicial experts and victim organizations

President Ivan Duque said in 2019 that “extradition does not end or suspend proceedings in Colombia” after the court asked to suspend the extradition of “Pipon,” one of Otoniel’s former lieutenants.

Before the end of 2020, the government had lost all “information on the whereabouts” of Pipon, according to opposition Senator Antonio Sanguino.

Hundreds of victims of AGC founder “Don Mario” were left without justice after his extradition, the attorneys of the former paramilitary commander and his victims said earlier this year.

Mario had been cooperating with justice since his arrest since 2009, but this came to an end because “it hasn’t been possible to set up communication channels with the prosecution,” according to the former warlord’s attorney.

The prosecution allegedly claimed that Mario “supposedly ended the process, but that’s a lie,” the defense attorney said.

‘Don Mario’ leaves 2000 crimes unresolved in Colombia to face US drug charges

Political motives to extradite Otoniel

Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!

American poem

While there exist no legal reasons to extradite Otoniel, the long-time AGC chief is a major liability for Duque’s mafia patrons.

One of the president’s former campaign chiefs, Luis Alfredo Ramos, was sentenced to prison earlier this year for the far-right politician’s ties to among others, Otoniel’s paramilitary group.

Multiple former police commanders were arrested earlier this month for their ties to an alleged drug traffickers chief of the AGC.

Political patron of Colombia’s president convicted over terrorist ties

Pending charges in the US

According to the US Department of State, the captured AGC chief was first indicted for drug trafficking in 2009.

Courts in Florida and New York indicted Otoniel and other founding members of his paramilitary group on new drug trafficking charges in 2015.

The long-time paramilitary chief lost legal protection against extradition because he abandoned the demobilization process with now-defunct paramilitary organization AUC and rearmed in 2006.