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La fiscal general Luz Adriana Camargo en un atril, con una pila de expedientes a su lado
La fiscal general Luz Adriana Camargo, señalada en una investigación periodística de haber buscado cambiar el delito de terrorismo por asonada para 11 procesados de la Primera Línea en Bogotá. · Foto de prensa

Prosecution, Primera Línea and judicial autonomy: debate over Bogotá plea deals

According to the investigation, prosecutors refused to change terrorism to riot for 11 Primera Línea accused in Bogotá.

--- The context --- In Bogotá, 11 members of the so-called Primera Línea were captured after a prosecution investigation that lasted more than two years. According to the investigation, Sijín agents recovered evidence and prosecutors moved forward with charges over attacks on TransMilenio, public buildings and citizens themselves. The file described organization, planning and execution of attacks, supported by videos and interceptions. Any later change in the legal classification had to be explained transparently, because it affected the accused, the victims and public confidence in judicial autonomy. --- The facts --- According to attendees at the meeting, a technical meeting was convened by email in June, with Deicy Jaramillo, Zenaida de Jesús López, Juan Andrés Cano and two prosecutors from the Bogotá Sectional office. According to the investigation, participants heard that Attorney General Luz Adriana Camargo was not happy with the terrorism accusation. Based on those testimonies, the instruction was to change terrorism to riot, and when the case prosecutors refused, a principle of opportunity, a form of negotiated prosecutorial benefit, was proposed instead. --- The positions --- The prosecutors refused to modify the charge and to sign the principle of opportunity, defending, according to the investigation, judicial autonomy and independence. After that refusal, Resolution 0171 of June 16, 2026, signed by Luz Adriana Camargo, created a special task group and the file moved offices at the accusation stage. Weeks later, the prosecutor who had the accusation ready was removed. By contrast, the resolution argued that the events occurred in social protest settings and that criminal action had to be harmonized with the right to demonstrate peacefully. --- What remains unknown --- The prosecution formalized deals contemplating sentences of between five and seven years. In some cases the terrorism offence was eliminated and in others responsibility was reduced from authors to accomplices. The documents describe attacks with explosive potatoes and machetes against buses, but state that the events would not meet the standard to constitute terrorism. TransMilenio and the National University were recognized as victims. They were informed of the filing with barely 12 hours notice, a period that, according to the victims, did not allow a detailed review. Seven of the 11 accepted the negotiated charges. --- Unanswered questions --- Why did a file change offices at a crucial stage if the case prosecutors had sustained the initial accusation? What technical criteria justified removing terrorism in some cases and reducing others from authors to accomplices? How was the victims' right to review deals guaranteed when they were informed only 12 hours in advance? Why was the hearing closed at the defence's request, despite objections from the victims and a tutela action seeking disclosure of the scope? These questions require documented, verifiable answers, not only general statements about social protest. --- EPM analysis --- This case requires separating two levels. First, social protest enjoys constitutional protection and no accusation should criminalize it, as the deals themselves reiterate. Second, that protection does not remove the duty to investigate concrete events involving explosives, machetes, burned buses and destroyed stations, nor the right of drivers and passengers to be heard as victims. The comparison mentioned in the investigation with the conviction of Epa Colombia, without explosives or an organization, increases the need for coherence. A negotiated deal can be legitimate, but its legitimacy depends on clear reasoning, sufficient publicity and due process for all parties. 📌 EPM Take: In EPM's view, this case must be resolved with full guarantees and in public light, without turning protest into a crime or diluting individually proven responsibilities at trial. The autonomy of the prosecutors who refused deserves institutional protection, because without independent prosecutors there is no credible due process. The deals of five and seven years need a verifiable technical explanation, file by file, distinguishing conduct, evidence and degrees of participation. The victims, notified with 12 hours notice, require real time to intervene. Only transparent reasoning, reviewable by the judge and understandable to the country, can close this controversy without damaging citizen confidence in justice.
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