Judges facing the veto power of economic actors: How to articulate the ordinary criminal jurisdiction with the Special Jurisdiction for Peace

• In Event: Power politics and inequality in Colombia: the use of transitional justice mechanisms to bring economic actors to account for their role in past atrocities

Abstract

In 2017, the Constitutional Court of Colombia ruled out the possibility of forcing economic actors to come before the Special Jurisdiction for Peace. As a consequence, the competence to trial these actors reverted back to the ordinary jurisdiction. This has led to further fragmentation of the investigation of cases related to the armed conflict, which gravely affects the possibility of finding a coherent judicial narrative of part atrocities, with a multi-actor approach to the conflict. There have been several doubts regarding the Attorney General’s office will and capacity to efficiently move forward the investigations as a guarantee of victims’ rights to truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-recurrence. This paper will present a diagnosis of the investigations in the ordinary justice, venturing to propose some structural obstacles that have trumped the investigation of these cases; and an analysis of some of the possibilities that the current legal system could have to guarantee accountability of economic actors.

Author

• Álvaro Fabián Carreño Ordónez