Last resort: victims of Otoniel try to stop their extradition with tutelage to the JEP

Attorney Jhonathan Orozco Tamayo, who is associated with the Inter-Church Commission for Justice and Peace (JEP), filed a guardianship action on Friday, April 8, as the representative of five victims of Dairo Antonio Úsuga, alias Otoniel, in order to stop his extradition to the United States.

Specifically, according to the newspaper El Espectador, those who filed this judicial appeal are victims of Operation Genesis, a series of paramilitary attacks in conjunction with the public forces to expel the guerrillas from lower Atrato in the mid-1990s. As a result, the Colombian State received a conviction from the IACHR.

Otoniel remains deprived of liberty on the premises of the Police Directorate of Criminal Investigation and Interpol (Dijin), pending being sent to the courts of the Southern District of Florida and the Eastern District of New York.

After the Supreme Court of Justice approved his extradition, Otoniel sent a letter to the victims of Urabá, grouped in the 'We are Genesis' movement, in which he assures them that, “a plan is being staged to bring the truth” to the United States. In the document, the criminal indicated that his extradition should only take place until he finishes testifying in the country about the facts related to the conflict and submits to the JEP.

The victims who came together to make this request consider that Otoniel should be taken into that special court and has exceptional truths to bring. What he would have to say “could not only clarify past events but help to disstructure the conflict in their territories, enable the transition to peace and ensure the non-repetition of events.”

In addition, they consider that they were not taken into account or allowed to appeal when the JEP made the final decision not to host Otoniel. Thus, in seeking to reverse that decision, they seek to ensure that their “fundamental rights of access to the administration of justice, due process, effective participation and truth, justice, reparation and the guarantee of non-repetition” are guaranteed.

This protection was then studied by the Chamber for the Definition of Legal Situations (SDSJ) and the Judicial Registry of the Chamber for the Definition of Legal Situations (SEJUD of the SDSJ) of that special jurisdiction. The 16 working hours of the deadline for responding will end this Wednesday.

However, according to the first response document, signed by Judge Gloria Amparo Rodríguez, it is not possible to prohibit Otoniel's extradition and that, in any case, even a precautionary measure gets out of the hands of the SDSJ for the time being. So, most likely, Otoniel will be sent to the United States before the end of April.

The United States also requested the extradition of Nini Johana Úsuga David, sister of the former head of the Gulf Clan, also known as alias La Negra. The Court of the Southern District of Florida, the same one that asked his brother, sent the application for the crimes of drug trafficking and money laundering.

The process is in the office of Judge Hugo Quintero, of the Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice, who reviews the evidence provided from the United States that qualify La Negra as Otoniel's right-hand man and will decide his next destination.

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