US embassy cable - 04BOGOTA2313

S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 02 BOGOTA 002313 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT OF JUSTICE FOR DAAG FOR THE CRIMINAL DIVISION - MARY 
LEE WARREN 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/07/2019 
TAGS: KCRM, PHUM, SNAR, PREL, PTER, ASEC, CO, GOV 
SUBJECT: PROSECUTOR GENERAL OSORIO AND AMBASSADOR REVIEW 
PROBLEMS IN THE FISCALIA 
 
Classified By: Ambassador William B. Wood for reasons 1.5 (b), (c), (d) 
 
 1. (S) Summary:  In a meeting with the Ambassador on March 
5, Prosecutor General (Fiscal General) Osorio said that he 
had accepted the resignations of two senior Fiscalia 
officials and dismissed several others in an effort to clean 
house.  He will also allow the Fiscalia,s prosecutors to 
elect a new national director.  The Ambassador said that 
Osorio, as immediate priorities, should: (1) polygraph all 
senior Fiscalia officials; and (2) establish a secure, 
independent anti-corruption unit with the necessary 
authorities and responsibilities, reporting directly to him. 
The unit,s first duty should be to investigate seven 
Fiscalia officials whom we believe to be involved in serious 
corruption.  Osorio agreed to the polygraphing, resisted 
creation of the anti-corruption unit, and questioned 
allegations against several of the seven.  Osorio asked for 
the embassy to provide information.  The Ambassador responded 
that the Fiscalia already had sufficient information to begin 
investigating and that it was up to the Fiscalia to do its 
own investigations.  End Summary. 
 
2. (C) Prosecutor General Luis Camilo Osorio called on the 
Ambassador March 5 to discuss allegations that the Office of 
the Prosecutor General (Fiscalia), the GOC's lead 
prosecutorial entity, was penetrated by paramilitaries and 
narcotics interests.  Osorio noted that he had just returned 
from Washington, where Department of Justice's Criminal 
Division Deputy Assistant Attorney General (DAAG) Mary Lee 
Warren had provided him with recommendations to root out 
paramilitary and narcotics-related collusion.  Osorio 
commented that upon returning to Colombia he had found 
himself "in the eye of a hurricane" given the intense media 
commentary about corruption within the Fiscalia.  The 
Ambassador noted that the Fiscalia's credibility was under 
question, and this could not only undermine Colombians' faith 
in their justice system, but could have serious consequences 
for USG assistance to the Fiscalia. 
 
---------------------------- 
Osorio: "I'm Taking Actions" 
---------------------------- 
 
3. (S) Osorio outlined recent dismissals and resignations of 
senior-level Fiscalia officials.  He had fired the former 
Director of the Witness Protection Program, Lucio Pabon, for 
incompetence.  He had also dismissed prosecutors in Cali for 
documented and suspected ties to narcotics traffickers.  He 
had accepted the resignation of the National Director of the 
Fiscales (i.e., prosecutors), Justo Pastor Rodriquez, noting 
that he could not defend Pastor's questionable actions.  He 
had reluctantly accepted the resignation of Pastor's 
next-in-line, Carlos Hernando Arias.  Although he questioned 
the charges against Arias, the Fiscalia was investigating 
allegations against both Pastor and Arias.  Osorio was going 
to have the Fiscalia's prosecutors elect the next National 
Director of Fiscales. 
 
------------- 
Rotten Apples 
------------- 
 
4.  (S) The Ambassador observed that the Embassy had been 
conducting its own study of the penetration of the Fiscalia 
by paramilitary and narcotics interests.  The U.S. was 
convinced that key Fiscalia officials had manipulated 
investigations and prosecutions in paramilitary and 
narcotrafficking cases.  In addition, prosecutors who 
zealously pursued these cases had been summarily reassigned 
or even dismissed.  The Embassy had had serious concerns 
about Justo Pastor and Lucio Pabon, and welcomed their 
removal.  In addition, the Embassy has equally strong 
reservations regarding senior officials still within the 
Fiscalia. 
 
---------------------------- 
Ambassador's Recommendations 
---------------------------- 
 
5.  (S) The Ambassador called for polygraphing of high-level 
Fiscalia officials, noting that the Prosecutor General had 
previously agreed to polygraph all members of the National 
Anti-Narcotics Unit (UNAIM).  He recommended polygraphing all 
Office Directors within the Fiscalia, including Specialized 
Unit Directors and Delegates before the Supreme Courts, and 
all the Fiscalia and CTI Sectional Directors (i.e., the 
senior Fiscalia and CTI officials in each of the 32 
departments).  The total of senior officials polygraphed 
would be more than 90.  Both the Prosecutor General and the 
Embassy should get the results of the polygraphs.  The 
Ambassador suggested that it would be beneficial for the 
Prosecutor General to work with the President's 
Anti-Corruption Czar, Maria Margarita Zuleta, in implementing 
anti-corruption reforms within the Fiscalia. 
 
 
6. (S) The Ambassador stressed that it was the Fiscalia's 
responsibility to investigate wrongdoing committed by its own 
personnel.  The Ambassador called on the Prosecutor General 
to establish an anti-corruption unit with the authority to 
investigate and prosecute corrupt Fiscalia officials.  The 
new unit should be staffed with trusted personnel who have 
undergone background checks and polygraphs.  Since we did not 
question Osorio's commitment, the unit should report its 
findings directly to the Prosecutor General.  This new unit 
should begin by investigating the allegations against 
individuals of particular concern. 
 
--------------- 
Osorio Responds 
--------------- 
 
7.  (S) Osorio denied that he had any contacts with the 
paramilitaries, or any of the other illegal armed groups.  He 
agreed to polygraph senior Fiscalia officials.  He resisted 
the establishment of a new anti-corruption unit, arguing that 
he could not independently assign this jurisdiction to a new 
unit.  Instead, he could create an ad-hoc unit and staff it 
with senior, respected prosecutors.  A more promising 
institutional alternative, he added, was expanding the scope 
of authority of the about to be created "Anti-Mafia Unit" so 
that it could pursue corruption within the Fiscalia. 
 
8. (S) Osorio said that he intended to fire the Fiscalia's 
Sectional Director in the department of Cesar, Alix Cecilia 
Dasa.  Osorio questioned, however, the veracity of the 
allegations against three, perhaps four, of the other 
officials about which the Embassy expressed serious 
reservations.  Osorio asked for the Embassy to share its 
information with the Fiscalia, sanitized to protect the 
sources, to help it conduct its investigations.  The 
Ambassador observed that in the Embassy's view the Fiscalia 
had not pursued all of the information already available to 
it in these cases and that it was up to the Fiscalia to 
conduct investigations, not the Embassy. 
 
9. (S) Comment and Action Request:  We are concerned by 
Osorio,s reluctance to empower a vetted anti-corruption 
unit.  We believe that the Fiscalia can robustly fight 
corruption within its ranks only by empowering a "walled-off" 
vetted anti-corruption unit.  We urge that this be a priority 
topic during the visit of DAAG Warren this week. End Comment. 
 
WOOD