Colombian Prosecutor’s Office accuses a former military officer of having orchestrated the death of Marcelo Pecci

First modification: 08/20/2022 – 03:20

This Friday, the Colombian Prosecutor’s Office accused Francisco Luis Correa Galeano of being the “mastermind” in the murder of Paraguayan prosecutor Marcelo Pecci. The entity assured that it will request an “exemplary sentence” for the accused, between 40 and 50 years in prison, in the trial that will begin on September 19.

“Responsible for the crimes of aggravated homicide and manufacturing, trafficking, carrying or possession of firearms, accessories, parts or aggravated ammunition”, detailed, on the charges that the Prosecutor’s Office accuses, the lawyer Francisco Bernate, attorney of the Pecci family later end of the hearing, which was held virtually.

Four other people captured in the case accepted responsibility and were sentenced to 23 years in prison -from an initial sentence of 47 years- for the murder of the prosecutor, who was on his honeymoon on the island of Barú, near Cartagena of indies.

Correa did not accept the charges, which is why he has not received a conviction and his process is still open. Who is designated as the “brain” of the crime is a 43-year-old ex-military man, linked to the organized crime gang “Los Paisa”, who served paramilitarism in that country for years, according to local media reports.

The evidence used to accuse Correa

The prosecutor in the case presented evidence to track down Correa, who was captured on June 3 in Medellin along with the other four convicted of the murder.

“Everyone is detected by cameras and cell phones, we know where you are, Colombia is a very complex territory for crime and the message that we are sending very strongly is that the institutions are articulated,” said the Colombian prosecutor, Francisco Barbosa, to the magazine ‘Semana’.

According to the investigative body, there are a series of videos in which it is possible to see how the men committed the crime: they followed Pecci and his wife, who was pregnant, around the island, and then shot the prosecutor from a jet ski. In addition, there are more than 50 witnesses who implicate the defendant in the crime, said the Prosecutor’s Office.

The entity proved that Correa held 39 telephone conversations with the two people in charge of monitoring the prosecutor and that he also ordered the man who was driving the jet ski to shoot.

“One of the conversations showed that minutes before the homicide, the defendant would have coordinated the exit of the jet ski with the assassins who took the life of the victim,” the Prosecutor’s Office indicated.

It was also learned that while the murder was being committed, the accused was in a beauty salon, a space in which he was allegedly coordinating all those involved, then he traveled by plane to Montería, some 250 kilometers away from Cartagena.

“Because of these facts, the Prosecutor’s Office considered that Correa Galeano’s participation in the murder of prosecutor Marcelo Pecci was fundamental, since added to the above he would have delivered money, the weapon and coordinated the logistics to carry out the murder,” assured the prosecutor of the case at the hearing this Friday.

President Gustavo Petro points to a drug trafficking gang as responsible

The recently inaugurated president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, echoed an investigation revealed by an independent news portal, where it is ensured that the crime was ordered by the 31-year-old Uruguayan drug trafficker Sebastián Marset, “a fugitive from Uruguayan and Paraguayan justice” .

The Rebelion.org portal points to the Insfrán clan, a “cocaine trafficking network commanded by Miguel Ángel Insfrán Galeano and the Uruguayan Sebastián Marset Cabrera”, as being behind Pecci’s murder. It also assures that Correa “seeks to cooperate with the US DEA and the Colombian Attorney General’s Office to prevent his extradition to the United States.”

The anti-corruption prosecutor specialized in organized crime, drug trafficking, money laundering and financing of terrorism. His work was not limited to Paraguay alone, he also investigated Brazilian gangs and Lebanese money launderers, operating in the Triple Border of Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil.

Similarly, he led media cases, such as the kidnapping and murder of the daughter of former Paraguayan President Raúl Cubas, in 2005, and the prosecution of Brazilian soccer player Ronaldinho, arrested in Asunción for falsifying documents in 2020.

with EFE