One of the most notorious processes that justice is currently carrying out is in the hands of a judge who feels in danger, and has expressed this to all authorities. He has received threats and follow-ups; There are people hanging around his house, cars from which they are watching him, and calls from strange numbers. Although he has set off the alarms, he walks on foot without any protection. This is the specialized judge of Barranquilla Hugo Carbonó, who is handling the process for illicit enrichment and money laundering of Nicolás Petro, son of the President of the Republic, Gustavo Petro.
This ordeal has led Judge Carbonó to go from office to office in search of protection. He has gone to the Police, he has made requests for protection to the Superior Council of the Judiciary, to the Attorney General’s Office, to the Supreme Court of Justice itself, and he has even reached the National Protection Unit (UNP), where he has had to narrate and provide details of the dangerous situation he faces. The diagnosis could not have been any other: Judge Carbonó has a level of “risk classified as extraordinary,” but nothing happens.
SEMANA exclusively reveals the documents that demonstrate the risk faced by the seasoned judge Carbonó, who does not let himself be intimidated and, in dark times of violence in the country, was one of the so-called “faceless judges.” Another of the most emblematic files in history also passed through his hands: that of the assassination of Luis Carlos Galán.
There is one scene that speaks for itself. It was April 29 and Nicolás Petro had been summoned to continue the trial against him. Before he arrived, there were already several vans from the Presidential security detail waiting for him; when he got out of his armored vehicle, hand in hand with his partner, Laura Ojeda, he was surrounded by a large group of bodyguards that made it impossible for the president’s guarded son to access him.
In the midst of the security and the cloud of journalists, a man arrived in a modest private car, alone, with a backpack on his shoulder, and crouched at the entrance to the momentous judicial procedure. He entered the office, opened his suitcase, took out his robe, the computer, some folders with documents and personal items, and sat down at the main table of the hearing room.
It was Judge Hugo Carbonó, the only one of the protagonists of this judicial plot whom no one cares about, although the freedom of the president’s son is in his hands, in the middle of a trial in which, in its early stages, he had confessed his guilt. , had said that his father was aware of the alleged irregular financing of his campaign and that he was not going to immolate himself for him.
His distressing security alerts have led him to move to Bogotá, to the National Protection Unit (UNP), where he had to tell everything he is experiencing, the follow-ups, the threats and the immense risk that being the judge of one of the most famous cases in the countryAfter several sessions and studies, the conclusion leaves no doubt: “The level of risk is extraordinary.”
This was recorded in documents known exclusively to SEMANA and signed by the director of the UNP, Augusto Rodríguez. Dgrp Resolution 002188 of 2024 clearly states that “make known to Mr. Hugo Junior Carbonó Ariza, identified with citizenship card No. 126****, the validation of the risk level as extraordinary, issued by the Committee for Risk Assessment and Recommendation of Measures – CERREM for Public Servants and Former Servants”.
And the order is clear: “Adopt the protection measures recommended by the Committee for Risk Assessment and Recommendation of CERREM Measures for Public Servants and Former Servants under the jurisdiction of the National Protection Unit”, but it has not been fulfilled either.
The matter is not small. Carbonó seems to be under surveillance all the time, and he told the authorities that there are vehicles of different brands that repeatedly park half a block before his house since the morning, and the same thing happens in the afternoons when he arrives from work. What is striking and has been verified, is that while he is in the judicial complex, far from his house, the cars disappear.
When he has gone out to public places such as restaurants, even accompanied by his family, he told investigators that there are people who sit nearby, watch him, and he even believes that they have taken photos of him. The only option he has is to get up and go back home to avoid the risk to himself and his companions. On one occasion, he is certain, one of the subjects sat so close that he believes he was trying to film him.
The UNP document clearly shows the ordeal that Judge Carbonó has experienced since he took on the Nicolás Petro case, and all the doors he has knocked on unsuccessfully seeking protection for his life.
“In the process of collecting information, it was observed that municipal entities and territorial authorities were consulted, such as the Attorney General’s Office, an entity that reported that Mr. Hugo Junior Carbonó Ariza filed a criminal complaint for the crime of threats in 2023. , a process that is active and in the investigation stage. Likewise, the National Police reported that they have records of complaints filed by the person under investigation for the crime of threats, in the month of January 2024 and that he was summoned to provide further information,” reads the risk assessment document.
According to reports in SEMANA’s possession, Judge Carbonó had already undergone a risk assessment last year, and at that time his condition was classified as “extraordinary”, which is why no one can explain why he has been left to his own devices and has no protection.
The UNP itself recognizes this: “It was concluded that the person being evaluated continues to be subject to an exceptional level of risk that he has no legal obligation to bear, with no variation in intensity compared to the previous risk level study; derived from his position as Criminal Judge of the Specialized Circuit of Barranquilla (Atlántico), having been assigned cases of national significance.”
What is ironic is that the specialized criminal judge of Barranquilla has taken charge of providing all security guarantees for the accused Nicolás Petro. Carbonó himself has been in charge of writing to the authorities requesting security for the transfers to the hearings of the president’s son. In this case, they have been granted immediately.
Black Ober
Judge Carbonó should be strongly guarded not only for handling the case of President Petro’s son. The risk to his life is imminent because, as he documented to the UNP, he was the one who sent to prison the partner of the dangerous criminal Ober Ricardo Martínez, known as Negro Ober, who, without hesitation, after this decision, recorded a threatening video against the judge, prosecutors, Inpec guards, and even promised a criminal attack in Barranquilla.
“In 2023, he was assigned processes of national significance such as the case against the wife of the subject known as Negro Ober, leader of the illegal armed group calling itself Los Rastrojos Costeños, whom he had transferred to a maximum security prison to prevent her from continuing to extort and order hitman activities in the city of Barranquilla,” warns the document from the Protection Unit, which adds that “in the case of Negro Ober’s wife, he issued a sentence and denied her freedom, a situation that generated discontent on the part of this leader and that was exposed by ‘open media’.
Given the latest circumstances and the fact that he is allegedly being followed, even with vehicles, at his home and at work, the various entities have been passing the buck. The UNP has informed the Higher Council of the Judiciary to take action and has not lifted a finger.
For now, the only security that Carbonó has is a bodyguard who is not permanent and accompanies him on certain trips. In addition, a bulletproof vest can be of little or no use in the event of an attack.
The legal fence
Added to all this risk and adversity that Judge Carbonó faces in terms of security is the judicial harassment that Nicolás Petro’s defense has undertaken since the very beginning of the trial, when the first request was the annulment of the process, which It was immediately rejected by the judge.
Given this decision, they went before the Superior Court of Barranquilla, alleging that their rights to “due process and double appeal” were violated, seeking to overthrow the case. The judge also presented his legal artillery, he defended himself and the court agreed with him.
Not satisfied, Nicolás Petro’s defense decided to insist again, this time before the Supreme Court of Justice, which also ruled in favor of the specialized criminal judge, and the case remains strong, but with little progress due to these legal attacks that have delayed it.
The last card that Judge Carbonó played to protect his life in the midst of the “extraordinary risk” determined by the UNP, is a meeting that he has already requested with the Attorney General, Luz Adriana Camargo, which, like his security detail, he is waiting to be confirmed. What is known is that at this meeting he will present new evidence and details of the surveillance and threats that he has not yet wanted to air in public, but which he hopes will be converted into immediate measures by the Attorney General’s Office.
