A private meeting at the Casa de Nariño, held at the beginning of this week, resulted in President Gustavo Petro deciding to put a stop to the norm with which he offered clear benefits to the members of the narco gangs who decided to join his proposal of ” total peace”.
And it is not that he is giving up on the project, but he did order his political team to remove at least 70 of the 90 articles in the draft from the articles that are going to Congress and that – until clearer lights are given on the true intention of the gangs to leave the illegality – do not leave any issue related to reduction of sentences.
This reversal, according to various sources consulted by EL COLOMBIANO, has to do with a series of intelligence reports that warn of a possible plan by groups such as Los Rastrojos and -among others- the Frontera Commandos (narco-dissident groups that operate on the border line with Venezuela and Ecuador) to start 2023 with a series of terrorist attacks and to the Public Force to show military muscle in the face of an eventual negotiation.
Petro, somewhat annoyed, told his Interior Minister, Alfonso Prada, that this warning cannot go unnoticed and that, therefore, the provisions of the regulation must be modified. The first impact is that the series of articles that contemplated a reduction in sentences of up to 60 percent, and the possibility of applying the principles of restorative justice so that effective prison sentences are not given, came out of the text.
Another of the ministers dealing with this issue, the Minister of Justice -Néstor Osuna-, also received the instruction to remove from the regulatory draft the articles that allowed the bosses to keep 10 percent of the illegal fortunes they amassed through the drug trafficking in exchange for denunciation and delivery of partners who do not submit to justice. This point, regarding which the Peace Commissioner himself, Danilo Rueda, spoke with spokesmen for the gangs, remained in a kind of intensive care, because the Executive knows that there is an important key to cement the rapprochement there.
All of this, in white silver, translates into the fact that the norm for negotiating with drug gangs does reach Congress, but without the articles that touch on or amend the Penal Code.
Of course, Petro was explicit with Prada and Osuna that the initiative must reach Congress in February –so there might be a summons to extra sessions (the legislative period begins in March)– and with an urgent message so that its process is fast .
In addition, as established by this newspaper, it became clear that, if the negotiations with the drug gangs begin to go well, there will be another bill –also with an urgent message– to revive criminal benefits. Everything depends, according to what was said in the private meeting at the Palace, on whether the terrorist threat warned by military intelligence does not materialize.