Colombia’s Minister of Justice, Néstor Osuna, has raised the figure of eight years in prison as a ‘tabula rasa’ for suspected drug traffickers to take advantage of the so-called Total Peace with which President Gustavo Petro intends to pacify the country.
«Let’s say we haven’t decided how much of a reduction or anything like that, but the country became familiar with the eight-year Justice and Peace idea. I don’t want to say that this is going to be the number, but let’s say that we know that this number should not cause a big scandal because society has already used it on other occasions,» Osuna said in a preview of the interview with the newspaper ‘El Tiempo’ that will be published in full on Sunday.
Osuna recalled that «this eight-year sentence was the same that was agreed upon with the paramilitary groups during the government of former President Álvaro Uribe Vélez. For the members of these illegal groups the penalty was effective imprisonment».
Also in the negotiation with the guerrilla of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), former president Juan Manuel Santos agreed to serve eight years, although not in prison, but with «effective restrictions of freedoms and rights».
Osuna stressed that the objective is to guarantee the dismantling of these criminal networks «to the point that drug trafficking ceases to be the threat to coexistence that it has been for Colombians in recent years». «That is the purpose, that is the goal, that we can live in a Colombia without the threat of drug trafficking,» he explained.
The criminals could benefit from this reduction of sentences in exchange for the dismantling of the gang, that is, the delivery of information on the routes, on the way in which the business is done, delivery of goods and acceptance of criminal responsibility. Osuna has also indicated that measures will also be taken to avoid extraditions of those who accept the proposal.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
