Santrich: the protagonist of the week in Colombia

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A tense week has been lived in Colombia for the different events related to the leader of the FARC Jesus Santrich and the issue surrounding his extradition

The crisis in Colombia began last Wednesday, May 15, when the General Prosecutor of the Nation, Néstor Humberto Martínez, presented his "irrevocable resignation" in contempt of the decision of the JEP (Special Justice for Peace) that rejected the extradition of the FARC excommander Jesus Santrich, in addition to the order of his release. It was a question that generated a wave of repercussions in politcal figures and the citizenship. Seuxis Paucias Hernández Solarte is the real name of who is known as Jesús Santrich, who has been in detention since April 2018, while the United States was already claiming him for drug trafficking charges, as was stated by the Prosecutor.

It may interest you: JEP and its decision to release Jesus Santrich

By Friday, May 17, Santrich was released and, while the entire process was being carried out, he was immediately recaptured by CTI agents at the door of the La Picota penitentiary, south of the Colombian capital. According to what was published by the portal Noticias Caracol, the testimony of Marlon Marín (nephew of Iván Marquez and protected witness of the DEA) was a fundamental piece for this following detention. As indicated by the Prosecutor's Office in a press release published on his twitter account on Friday at 5:14 p.m., "As a result of international judicial cooperation, new evidences have been incorporated to give clarity of the circumstances regarding the time, manner and place of the alleged conspiracy conducts to commit a crime for drug trafficking purposes attributed to Hernández Solarte".

In addition, he highlighted that among these new evidences was the declaration of Marín accusing Santrich of being the alleged coordinator of a shipment of drugs to the United States, as the same news portal informs. He also published that Marín talked about what the meeting would have been in detail, which is recorded on video, why encrypted language was used and what each word of the story related there meant. Marquez's nephew insisted that it was an operation to traffic drugs destined for the Sinaloa cartel. It was with all this evidence that the Prosecutor's Office requested a new arrest warrant, which became effective at 4 o'clock on Friday afternoon when Santrich was leaving the prison facilities.

This Saturday, the portal Noticias Caracol reported that the leader suffered an anxiety crisis due to being recaptured by the General Prosecutor. At dawn on Saturday, Santrich was transferred to the Méderi Clinic. In this regard, the Colombian president, Iván Duque, backed the operation and has not referred to a possible extradition of the former commander. At the moment, he only published in his twitter account in the company of a video that the Santrich's capture "reflects that justice has acted with force against the accusation of drug trafficking" and that his responsibility as President of Colombia is the preservation of the State of Law that with "All the institutions will continue working so that there is no impunity."

LatinAmerican Post | Ana María Aray

Translated from "Santrich: el protagonista de la semana en Colombia"