Carlos Mario Jiménez
Encyclopedia
Carlos Mario Jiménez Naranjo aka "Macaco" or Javier Montañez (born February 26, 1966) is a Colombia
n former drug lord
and paramilitary leader. Jimenez was a member of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia
(AUC) paramilitary group which demobilized between 2005 and 2007. Jimenez ordered the assassination of numerous people in the region of the Santander and North Santander
specially in the city of Barrancabermeja
where his organization confronted and defeated the National Liberation Army
(ELN) for the control of the territory. Jimenez was the commander in chief of the Central Bolívar Bloc
of the AUC.
arriving in a flight from Venezuela
. Jimenez was then wanted for homicide and concert to commit crimes. Colombian intelligence service Departamento Administrativo de Seguridad
(DAS) classified Jimenez as third in command of the AUC and personal collaborator of Carlos Castaño
.
After being released from prison, Jimenez seek refugee in the southern region of the Department of Bolívar where he began to control clandestine airstrips and cocaine laboratories.
According to a report by the Colombian National Police, Jimenez also established similar cocaine complexes in Putumayo, Caqueta
, Bajo Cauca Antioquia
and the Catatumbo region. His main area of operation was the Colombian Coffee-Growers Axis
region where he laundered illegal drug trade money.
The Colombian National Police also pointed Jimenez as the Chief of a "Charging Office" or "officina de cobro" Colombian slang
term which refers to a criminal organizations' center of operations and which was related to the Norte del Valle Cartel
. By 2002 Jimenez was considered one of the replacements of drug lord Luis Hernando Gómez Bustamante
aka "Rasguño".
.
Two months after concentrating in Santa Fe de Ralito as a paramilitary leader, the Colombian National Police occupied his main campsites, including one known as "Villa Macaco"; a military and cocaine complex with a capacity to harbor some 250 men and had a satellite communication system. The Colombian police confiscated some 20 million Colombian peso
s, weapons, 4,850 gallons of chemicals and two tons of solid chemicals for illegal drug processing were destroyed. Authorities also found an accounting book which detailed the money transactions of Jimenez.
Jimenez demobilized with the Central Bolívar Bloc of the AUC in early 2005 and was jailed under the terms of the Law of Peace and Justice which pardoned time in jail if the paramilitary groups collaborated with authorities telling the truth about their crimes and economically "repairing" the victims or their families.
The Central Bolívar Bloc of the AUC had at this time approximately six thousand men.
, drug trafficking and support for terrorist organizations.
In Colombia Jimenez also has an accusation resolution submitted by the Attorney General of Colombia
National Unit for Human Rights as responsible for the assassination in February 2001 of the regional ombudsman Iván Ramírez Luciani and four other people. Another accusation was the assassination in Cúcuta
of the director of the Universidad Libre de Cúcuta on February 12, 2001.
The Colombian National Police
also accused Jimenez of being the mastermind behind the armed assault rescue operation of hitman
Jorge Iván Laverde aka "El Iguano" extracted from a Police protected clinic in the city of Cúcuta.
A Colombian judicial instrument known as tutela was used then by the victims of the paramilitaries claiming that Jimenez had told very little the truth about their disappeared family members and conditioned the extradition if only Jimenez confessed his crimes and paid reparation.
On April 10, 2008 the "tutela" defended by the Supreme Court of Colombia
temporarily upheld the extradition of Jimenez while the government of Álvaro Uribe
pressed for Jimenez prompt extradition.
After Colombia's top judicial panel overturned the Supreme Court's decision on May 7, 2008, the Colombian government immediately put "Macaco" on a DEA
plane to Washington.
. The Prosecution accused him of terrorism
and conspiring to import cocaine into the United States. Jiménez appointed lawyers Rick Diaz from Miami and Donna Newman from New York City as his lawyers and pleaded not guilty. Macaco was refused bail, because of a "high risk of escape", despite arguments by the defense the accused could stay with relatives, currently living in the United States. The judge turned down the defendant's US$ 1 million bail offer.
On June 14, 2010, the Center for Justice & Accountability along with the law firm of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati
instituted a civil action in the Southern District of Florida against Macaco alleging torture
, extrajudicial killing, war crimes and crimes against humanity. The case was brought under the Alien Tort Statute
and the Torture Victim Protection Act.
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
n former drug lord
Drug lord
A drug lord, drug baron or kingpin is the term used to describe a person who controls a sizable network of persons involved in the illegal drugs trade. Such figures are often difficult to bring to justice, as they might never be directly in possession of something illegal, but are insulated from...
and paramilitary leader. Jimenez was a member of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia
United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia
The United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia was created as an umbrella organization of regional far-right...
(AUC) paramilitary group which demobilized between 2005 and 2007. Jimenez ordered the assassination of numerous people in the region of the Santander and North Santander
Department of North Santander
North Santander is a department of Colombia. It is in the north of the country, bordering Venezuela. Its capital is Cúcuta, one of the major cities of Colombia....
specially in the city of Barrancabermeja
Barrancabermeja
Barrancabermeja is a city and municipality in Santander Department, in northeastern Colombia. It is located on the banks of the Magdalena River in the Middle Magdalena region, 110 km west of Bucaramanga. Founded in 1536, Barrancabermeja is home of the biggest petroleum refinery in Colombia,...
where his organization confronted and defeated the National Liberation Army
National Liberation Army (Colombia)
National Liberation Army is a revolutionary, avowed Marxist guerrilla group that has been operating in several regions of Colombia since 1964....
(ELN) for the control of the territory. Jimenez was the commander in chief of the Central Bolívar Bloc
Central Bolívar Bloc
The Central Bolívar Bloc was a Colombian paramilitary organization and a bloc of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia .-Demobilization:...
of the AUC.
Drug lord and paramilitary leader
Jimenez was first captured by Colombian authorities in January 2002 at El Dorado International AirportEl Dorado International Airport
El Dorado International Airport is an international airport located in Bogotá, Colombia. It is the largest Latin America airport in terms of cargo movements with 593,946 tons and the third in terms of passenger traffic, only behind São Paulo-Guarulhos International Airport and Mexico City's...
arriving in a flight from Venezuela
Venezuela
Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
. Jimenez was then wanted for homicide and concert to commit crimes. Colombian intelligence service Departamento Administrativo de Seguridad
Departamento Administrativo de Seguridad
The Administrative Department of Security was the Security Service agency of Colombia, also responsible for the immigration services. It was dissolved on 31 October 2011 as part of a wider Executive Reform, and it was superseded by the National Directorate of Intelligence, DNI.- Activities :Its...
(DAS) classified Jimenez as third in command of the AUC and personal collaborator of Carlos Castaño
Carlos Castaño
Carlos Castaño Gil was the founder of the Peasant Self-Defense Forces of Córdoba and Urabá , an extreme right paramilitary organization in Colombia...
.
After being released from prison, Jimenez seek refugee in the southern region of the Department of Bolívar where he began to control clandestine airstrips and cocaine laboratories.
According to a report by the Colombian National Police, Jimenez also established similar cocaine complexes in Putumayo, Caqueta
Department of Caquetá
Caquetá Department is a department of Colombia. Located in the Amazonas region, Caquetá borders with the departments of Cauca and Huila to the west, the department of Meta to the north, the department of Guaviare to the northeast, the department of Vaupés to the east, the departments of Amazonas...
, Bajo Cauca Antioquia
Bajo Cauca Antioquia
Bajo Cauca Antioquia is a subregion in the Colombian Department of Antioquia. The region is made up by 6 municipalities. The region cover most of the lower valley of the Cauca River with the department of Antioquia.-Municipalities:* Cáceres* Caucasia...
and the Catatumbo region. His main area of operation was the Colombian Coffee-Growers Axis
Colombian Coffee-Growers Axis
Colombian Coffee-Growers Axis , also known as Coffee Triangle is a part of the Colombian Paisa region which is famous for growing and production of a majority of the Colombian coffee, considered by some as the best coffee in the world. There are three departments in the area: Caldas, Quindío and...
region where he laundered illegal drug trade money.
The Colombian National Police also pointed Jimenez as the Chief of a "Charging Office" or "officina de cobro" Colombian slang
Colombian Spanish
Colombian Spanish is a term that refers to the varieties of Spanish spoken in Colombia. The term is of more geographical than linguistic relevance, since the dialects spoken in the various regions of Colombia are quite diverse...
term which refers to a criminal organizations' center of operations and which was related to the Norte del Valle Cartel
Norte del Valle Cartel
The Norte del Valle Cartel, or North Valley Cartel, is a drug cartel that operates principally in the north of the Valle del Cauca department of Colombia...
. By 2002 Jimenez was considered one of the replacements of drug lord Luis Hernando Gómez Bustamante
Luis Hernando Gomez
Luis Hernando Gómez Bustamante is a Colombian drug trafficker for the Norte del Valle Cartel, who was arrested in 2004 and, on July 19, 2007 transported for extradition to the United States on charges of money laundering and drug smuggling...
aka "Rasguño".
Santa Fe de Ralito
In 2006 the Colombian government broke out a deal with the AUC paramilitary groups and negotiate a peace accord in the village of Santa Fe de Ralito, Department of Córdoba in northern Colombia. Most of the paramilitary leaders concentrated in the area and Jimenez became a spokesman for the organization along Vicente CastañoVicente Castaño
José Vicente Castaño aka El Profe is a Colombian paramilitary former leader of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia , a right-wing Colombian paramilitary organization...
.
Two months after concentrating in Santa Fe de Ralito as a paramilitary leader, the Colombian National Police occupied his main campsites, including one known as "Villa Macaco"; a military and cocaine complex with a capacity to harbor some 250 men and had a satellite communication system. The Colombian police confiscated some 20 million Colombian peso
Colombian peso
The peso is the currency of Colombia. Its ISO 4217 code is COP and it is also informally abbreviated as COL$. However, the official peso symbol is $. As 20 July 2011, the exchange rate of the Colombian peso is 1750 Colombian pesos to 1 U.S. dollar.-History:The peso has been the currency of Colombia...
s, weapons, 4,850 gallons of chemicals and two tons of solid chemicals for illegal drug processing were destroyed. Authorities also found an accounting book which detailed the money transactions of Jimenez.
Jimenez demobilized with the Central Bolívar Bloc of the AUC in early 2005 and was jailed under the terms of the Law of Peace and Justice which pardoned time in jail if the paramilitary groups collaborated with authorities telling the truth about their crimes and economically "repairing" the victims or their families.
The Central Bolívar Bloc of the AUC had at this time approximately six thousand men.
Crime investigations
Jimenez has active processes in the United States and Colombia for money launderingMoney laundering
Money laundering is the process of disguising illegal sources of money so that it looks like it came from legal sources. The methods by which money may be laundered are varied and can range in sophistication. Many regulatory and governmental authorities quote estimates each year for the amount...
, drug trafficking and support for terrorist organizations.
In Colombia Jimenez also has an accusation resolution submitted by the Attorney General of Colombia
Attorney General of Colombia
The Office of the Attorney General of Colombia is the Colombian institution part of the Colombian judicial branch of Government with administrative autonomy designed to prosecute offenders, investigate crimes, review judicial processes and accuse penal law infractions against judges and courts of...
National Unit for Human Rights as responsible for the assassination in February 2001 of the regional ombudsman Iván Ramírez Luciani and four other people. Another accusation was the assassination in Cúcuta
Cúcuta
Cúcuta is a Colombian city, capital of Norte de Santander, in the northeast of the country. Due to its proximity to the Colombian-Venezuelan border, Cúcuta is an important commercial center. The city has the constitutional category of Special District. It is located at the most active...
of the director of the Universidad Libre de Cúcuta on February 12, 2001.
The Colombian National Police
Colombian National Police
The National Police of Colombia is the national police force of Colombia. Although the National Police is not part of the Military of Colombia , it constitutes along with them the "Public Force" and is also controlled by the Ministry of Defense. They are the largest police force in Colombia...
also accused Jimenez of being the mastermind behind the armed assault rescue operation of hitman
Hitman
A hitman is a person hired to kill another person.- Hitmen in organized crime :Hitmen are largely linked to the world of organized crime. Hitmen are hired people who kill people for money. Notable examples include Murder, Inc., Mafia hitmen and Richard Kuklinski.- Other cases involving hitmen...
Jorge Iván Laverde aka "El Iguano" extracted from a Police protected clinic in the city of Cúcuta.
Extradition to the United States
Colombian authorities proved that Jimenez remained active in the illegal drug trade while jailed under the terms of the Law of Peace and Justice. The government determined that Jimenez lost his benefits as paramilitary leader and decided to authorize his extradition to the United States.A Colombian judicial instrument known as tutela was used then by the victims of the paramilitaries claiming that Jimenez had told very little the truth about their disappeared family members and conditioned the extradition if only Jimenez confessed his crimes and paid reparation.
On April 10, 2008 the "tutela" defended by the Supreme Court of Colombia
Supreme Court of Colombia
The Supreme Court of Colombia in Bogotá is the highest judicial body in civil and penal matters and issues of criminal and civil procedure in Colombia...
temporarily upheld the extradition of Jimenez while the government of Álvaro Uribe
Álvaro Uribe
Alvaro Uribe Vélez was the 58th President of Colombia, from 2002 to 2010. In August 2010 he was appointed Vice-chairman of the UN panel investigating the Gaza flotilla raid....
pressed for Jimenez prompt extradition.
After Colombia's top judicial panel overturned the Supreme Court's decision on May 7, 2008, the Colombian government immediately put "Macaco" on a DEA
Drug Enforcement Administration
The Drug Enforcement Administration is a federal law enforcement agency under the United States Department of Justice, tasked with combating drug smuggling and use within the United States...
plane to Washington.
Trial in the United States
Jiménez first appeared before the Colombia State Court on May 7, 2008, almost immediately after being transferred from BogotáBogotá
Bogotá, Distrito Capital , from 1991 to 2000 called Santa Fé de Bogotá, is the capital, and largest city, of Colombia. It is also designated by the national constitution as the capital of the department of Cundinamarca, even though the city of Bogotá now comprises an independent Capital district...
. The Prosecution accused him of terrorism
Terrorism
Terrorism is the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion. In the international community, however, terrorism has no universally agreed, legally binding, criminal law definition...
and conspiring to import cocaine into the United States. Jiménez appointed lawyers Rick Diaz from Miami and Donna Newman from New York City as his lawyers and pleaded not guilty. Macaco was refused bail, because of a "high risk of escape", despite arguments by the defense the accused could stay with relatives, currently living in the United States. The judge turned down the defendant's US$ 1 million bail offer.
On June 14, 2010, the Center for Justice & Accountability along with the law firm of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati
Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati
Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati is a law firm in the United States that specializes in business, securities, and intellectual property law. The firm's Chairman, Larry Sonsini, is well known as an attorney and advisor to technology companies....
instituted a civil action in the Southern District of Florida against Macaco alleging torture
Torture
Torture is the act of inflicting severe pain as a means of punishment, revenge, forcing information or a confession, or simply as an act of cruelty. Throughout history, torture has often been used as a method of political re-education, interrogation, punishment, and coercion...
, extrajudicial killing, war crimes and crimes against humanity. The case was brought under the Alien Tort Statute
Alien Tort Statute
The Alien Tort Statute ) is a section of the United States Code that reads: "The district courts shall have original jurisdiction of any civil action by an alien for a tort only, committed in violation of the law of nations or a treaty of the United States." This statute is notable for allowing...
and the Torture Victim Protection Act.