The former top leader of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), Salvatore Mancuso Gómez, is playing all his cards to get out of La Picota prison. He has been held there since last February, when he arrived in Bogotá after having served a 15-year sentence in the United States for drug trafficking. Since then, every two or three weeks, one court says he can be released, and another that he cannot. Mancuso entered a legal labyrinth that is very difficult to get out of because he is in an exceptional position: he is in two jurisdictions. First in Justice and Peace, which was born from the demobilization of the paramilitaries two decades ago, and then in the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP), which was born from negotiations with the FARC in 2016. EL PAÍS learned that one of the legal strategies that Mancuso’s team is considering to get out of the judicial labyrinth, and guarantee his freedom, is to renounce one of the two transitional systems.
Since last February, when Mancuso returned to Colombia, he claimed that he had the right to parole because he had served his Justice and Peace sentences while incarcerated in the United States prison. He could continue collaborating with Justice and Peace in open cases, and be a peacemaker: in August 2023, President Gustavo Petro signed the resolution that designated him as such. Everything seemed to be working in his favor: on March 4, his first release order was issued, after a Justice and Peace sentence enforcement judge ordered it. However, his release became entangled just a week later, when the Justice and Peace Chamber of the Superior Court of Barranquilla warned that there were still pending proceedings that prevented his release.
Four months have passed since then and the person most responsible for crimes committed by the Self-Defense Forces has still not been released. This newspaper learned that, since July 6, the Colombian Penitentiary and Prison Institute (Inpec) has been consulting several Colombian courts to confirm the release of the person most responsible for the paramilitary chapter in the armed conflict. None has dared to confirm his release.
For this reason, Mancuso filed a criminal complaint against three INPEC officials on Tuesday, July 9, for the crimes of prevarication by omission and unlawful prolongation of deprivation of liberty. The complaint explains that in the last hearing, before the Superior Court of Bogotá and carried out on July 5, the judge gave INPEC 36 hours to release the former paramilitary chief. The time was up on Sunday, July 7, at 2 in the morning. That is why the former paramilitary chief, since that day, argued that his detention was illegal and even called on the UN and the International Criminal Court to intervene.
In the document submitted to the Prosecutor’s Office, Mancuso alleged that his freedom has been denied “because he has a biographical record and a resume with notes that do not even correspond to preventive measures, arrest warrants or sentences.” According to him, there is no measure against him, but the Inpec, according to the complaint, has disputed this by telling him that he does have pending preventive measures and that his release depends on the timing of the Constitutional Court.
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On April 16, the JEP — the Peace Tribunal created after the Peace Agreement with the FARC in 2016 — issued a ruling stating that Mancuso would not be released because that decision was the responsibility of Justice and Peace. Since then, the conflict of jurisdiction between the two justice systems has also been raised and, since then, the Constitutional Court has been studying the decision.
Although Mancuso has filed writs of protection, petitions, habeas data and, recently, a criminal complaint to be released from prison, both the JEP and the Justice and Peace system have determined that they will await the decision of the Constitutional Court. On July 4, the JEP again ruled on the case and reaffirmed that it is not the competent authority to order his release, as long as there is no decision from the high court. However, this court gave him the “clear” by confirming that he has no pending cases with them that require him to remain deprived of liberty.
![La Picota prison, where Mancuso is being held, on February 27.](https://imagenes.elpais.com/resizer/v2/RX36DZ3NZNHDZEB7TXEFV5XDM4.jpg?auth=8dad9f530b7857e176712805745cca62f32f59d66067d6a49196f0af5887c739&width=414)
Two days after the JEP’s pronouncement, a judge for the execution of sentences from the Justice and Peace department gave the green light to release her. EL PAÍS was informed of the report of the hearing in which this decision was made and in which the judge reiterated that one of the limitations on her conditional release would be not visiting the departments of Córdoba, Antioquia, Cesar, Sucre, La Guajira, Norte de Santander and Magdalena—areas of Colombia where the paramilitary armies were very strong.
Constitutional Court judge Diana Fajardo has the final say on Mancuso’s future: she will decide which of the two courts should ultimately resolve his situation. However, for political scientist Juan Carlos Villamizar, advisor to Mancuso’s legal team, the issue is more transcendental. “Here we are not playing for the future of the top paramilitary leader, we are playing for the future of the two transitional justice systems that Colombia has.” According to him, the decision taken by the Court will set a precedent for other paramilitary leaders who are in Justice and Peace and also want to be part of the JEP (if this latter court accepts them).
Villamizar explains that, regarding the decision of the Constitutional Court, there are four possible scenarios: that the entire file remains in the Justice and Peace system; that the JEP keeps all of Mancuso’s cases; that the Constitutional Court orders Justice and Peace to finish the judicial files against the former paramilitary within a certain time so that his process in the JEP can then begin; or that it determines that both justice systems are competent to investigate him in parallel.
This newspaper was able to confirm that, in the event that Mancuso’s legal team considers that there are no “legal guarantees” with the Court’s decision, they would be evaluating the possibility of him renouncing his participation in one of the two systems. Although they have not made a decision, and will wait for the Court’s ruling, the most viable option in that case would be to resign from the JEP: he has already been tried in Justice and Peace, while the JEP is the Peace Court to which he recently and voluntarily joined, with the aim of providing the truth about the crimes committed by the Public Force in alliance with paramilitaries. His freedom, however, has put his commitment to one of the two courts at risk.
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