The Colombian Attorney General's Office imposed precautionary measures of seizure, sequestration and suspension of the power of attorney on two offices of the French oil company Perenco in Bogotá, accused of financing paramilitary groups in the context of the internal armed conflict.
The two offices, located in a building in the financial center of the Colombian capital, are valued at more than 10 million dollars, equivalent to approximately 41,318 million Colombian pesos.
These assets were delivered to the Fund for the Reparation of Victims, to be used to compensate the civilian population affected by paramilitary actions, especially in the department of Casanare, one of the regions hardest hit by the violence.
The main accusation against Perenco is that it allegedly financed the Centauros Bloc of the extinct United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) in Casanare.
According to the Attorney General's Office, this alleged link occurred between 1997 and 2005, a period in which the oil company allegedly increased its presence and assets in the region.
The accusations are based on statements made before the transitional justice system by former paramilitary commanders such as Daniel Rendón Herrera, Manuel de Jesús Pirabán and Orosman Orlando Osten Blanco.
These former commanders assured that the company provided money, fuel, food and transportation to the illegal armed group, in exchange for an alleged “security service” provided by the paramilitaries in their oil extraction zones.
The investigation, led by the Transitional Justice Directorate of the Prosecutor's Office, was a complex process that involved financial intelligence, international cooperation and criminal analysis, in which the Prosecutor's Office was able to identify the assets thanks to a joint effort with the Asset Recovery Network of the Financial Action Task Force of Latin America (GAFILAT), of which Colombia is a member.
This collaboration allowed access to information on the company's corporate structure and control of operations in Colombia.
In addition, information was gathered on the company's hydrocarbon concession, exploitation and production contracts, which confirmed the relationship between the company and the armed group.
Based on all this evidentiary material, the precautionary measures were requested by the Prosecutor's Office and granted by the Superior Court of Bogotá.
The investigation was supported by the Technical Investigation Corps (CTI), the investigative group of special jurisdictions of the DIJIN, the Ministry of Mines and Energy, the National Hydrocarbons Agency, Ecopetrol and other state entities.
It should be noted that this is not the only legal action related to Perenco, as in September 2024, a prosecutor delegated to the Bogotá Court had already confirmed the indictment against two former Perenco officials, Antenor Sarmiento Delgado and Ramiro Pinzón Suárez, for their alleged financing of the Heroes de San Fernando front of the AUC's Centauros Bloc between 1996 and 2006.
Both have been charged since December 2022 for the crime of aggravated conspiracy to commit a crime, which was declared a crime against humanity.
Perenco, which was installed in Colombia in 1993, and which in 2024 produced some 165,000 barrels of crude oil per day in 34 oil fields in Casanare, has not yet made a statement on this embargo.
This action by the Attorney General's Office represents a key step forward in the Colombian State's effort to guarantee truth, justice and reparation to the victims of an armed conflict that has left 1.1 million dead, 200,000 disappeared and 9 million displaced.