Colombia’s Faceless Justice: A Necessary Evil, Blind Impartiality, or Modern Inquisition?

Abstract

In the mid-1980s, Colombian drug lords declared all out war on Colombia’s judicial system in an effort to intimidate the Colombian government into canceling extradition agreements with the United States. Dozens of judges and prosecutors who could not be bribed were intimidated, assaulted, or assassinated as a means of impeding the work of the judiciary in prosecuting the so-called war on drugs. In an effort to protect the lives of Colombian judicial officials, extreme measures were taken to hide the identities of the judges and prosecutors hearing drug cases. The result was a secret court system out of which other issues of justice and human rights became an issue. This article examines in-depth the history of the Colombian legal system, the evolution of its judiciary, and the role of faceless judges as a means of fighting drug trafficking.

Keywords: United States, Colombia, extradition, judiciary, human rights, hidden identities, drug trafficking, secret court system

JEL Classification: K14, K33, K42