Colombia Deputy Defence Minister Accused Over Files She Signed as a Prosecutor
Politics · Colombia
Key Facts
- —What happened Colombia’s deputy defence minister has been formally accused in a criminal case from her years as a prosecutor.
- —What she is accused of Prosecutors say she signed four sworn statements taken in Valledupar prisons that she had not attended.
- —What she says Claudia Carrasquilla says she is innocent and calls the case a set-up by the prosecution service.
- —The catch No trial has started: the hearing that must come first has been scheduled five times and missed.
- —What else is open A separate disciplinary file sits with the Procuraduría, the watchdog that can remove Colombian public officials.
Colombia’s deputy defence minister is contesting a criminal case built on sworn statements she signed as a prosecutor a decade ago. No court has ruled, and she says she is innocent.
Colombia’s deputy defence minister has been formally accused in a criminal case that has not reached trial. The charges concern documents she signed as a prosecutor more than a decade ago.
Claudia Victoria Carrasquilla Minami was appointed by presidential decree on 13 August 2026. Caracol Radio set out the state of her case on Tuesday 29 September 2026.
Nobody has been convicted of anything here. Under Colombian law she is presumed innocent until a judge decides otherwise.
The job she holds, and how she got it
Her official title is vice-minister for defence and security policies. The role covers the design, coordination and monitoring of Colombia’s security policy, El Tiempo reported.
Decree 1206 of 13 August 2026 made the appointment. It was signed by President Abelardo de la Espriella and by the defence minister, Major General (retired) Jorge Eduardo Mora López.
De la Espriella took office as president on 7 August 2026. His defence ministry announced on 18 August 2026 that its new team of vice-ministers had been sworn in.
Carrasquilla is a criminal lawyer who spent most of her career inside the Fiscalía General de la Nación. That is Colombia’s national prosecution service.
She ran the prosecution unit against organised crime in Medellín and later directed that work nationally. El Tiempo says she became publicly known as la dama de hierro, the iron lady.
What the complaint says
The case began with a complaint from William Fernando Molina, then a police patrolman in Valledupar. He was arrested in July 2015 and prosecuted for aggravated criminal conspiracy and aggravated theft.
Molina challenged four sworn statements taken inside prisons in Valledupar. They are dated 15 and 16 May 2014, 5 June 2014 and 4 December 2015.
He says Carrasquilla appears as the signing prosecutor although she was not there. An investigator collected the statements in the prisons and obtained the signatures elsewhere afterwards, the complaint says.
Molina also named four members of her judicial police team. He says the paperwork fed the case that kept him in custody for more than two months.
The two charges are fraude procesal and falsedad ideológica en documento público. In plain English, that means misleading a judicial official and entering false information in an official document.
Which body is doing what
The charges were brought by the Fiscalía unit that appears before the Corte Suprema de Justicia, Colombia’s highest ordinary court. El Tiempo calls it one of the weightiest offices inside the prosecution service.
The Supreme Court itself is not judging her. The hearings have run through the courts of Valledupar, a city in northern Colombia.
The first formal step came on 5 December 2024, an imputación. At that hearing prosecutors tell a suspect what they are investigating.
An imputación opens a case rather than settling it. The written indictment was filed on 4 April 2025.
The hearing at which it was formally put, the formulación de acusación, followed on 20 May 2025. One stage still stands between that point and a trial.
It is the audiencia preparatoria, where a judge rules on the evidence each side may bring. That hearing was first set for October 2025.
It was set again for January, April, July and September 2026. None of those sittings went ahead.
La Silla Vacía reported on 5 August 2026 that the adjournments had come at the request of her defence. No trial date has been reported.
What Carrasquilla says
She has rejected the accusation from the beginning. “I am innocent and I am going to go all the way to the oral trial stage,” she said in November 2024.
El Tiempo published those words on 22 November 2024. She called the case a fabrication by the prosecution service, aimed at her for opposing the government of the day.
That government was led by President Gustavo Petro, whose term ended in August 2026. She made the same point to El Colombiano on 21 November 2024.
Neither she nor the defence ministry is quoted in Tuesday’s reports.
A second file, and the Medellín question
There is also a disciplinary case. Infobae reported that the Procuraduría General de la Nación filed formal disciplinary charges against her in August 2025.
The Procuraduría is the state body that disciplines public officials in Colombia. It can suspend or dismiss them, and it works separately from the criminal courts.
The criminal case is not about the Medellín gang prosecutions that made her name. It grew out of a 2014 investigation into robbery rings in the north of the country.
She told El Colombiano in 2024 that the investigation led to 39 arrests. Fourteen police officers were prosecuted in the same case, El Tiempo reported.
Two of those officers later filed the complaints against her. She has described the whole file as retaliation for her politics.
Blu Radio reported in November 2024 that she also faces denuncias over her time running the Medellín prosecution office. A denuncia is a complaint laid before prosecutors, not a charge before a judge.
Why it matters beyond Bogotá
The vice-ministry helps write the security policy of a government that came in promising order. The ministry said in August 2026 that its new team would recover order and strengthen the legitimate authority of the state.
The case was already on the public record when she was appointed. La Silla Vacía described it on 5 August 2026, eight days before the decree was signed.
For a reader outside the country, the useful point is how much process is still left. An accusation opens an argument, and only a verdict ends it.
More: Colombia coverage, every day from The Rio Times.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Colombian deputy defence minister accused of?
Claudia Carrasquilla is accused of fraude procesal and falsedad ideológica en documento público. In English, that is misleading a judicial official and entering false information in an official document. The accusation concerns four sworn statements taken in prisons in Valledupar between May 2014 and December 2015, which a former police patrolman says she signed as prosecutor although she was not present when they were taken.
Has a court found her guilty of anything?
No. She was formally notified of the investigation on 5 December 2024, the written indictment was filed on 4 April 2025 and the accusation was formally put on 20 May 2025. The pre-trial hearing has not taken place, no trial has begun and no trial date has been reported. Under Colombian law she is presumed innocent until a judge rules.
Who brought the case, and which court is hearing it?
The charges were brought by the unit of the Fiscalía General de la Nación, Colombia’s national prosecution service, that appears before the Corte Suprema de Justicia. The Supreme Court is not judging her. The hearings have run through the courts of Valledupar, a city in northern Colombia. A separate disciplinary file sits with the Procuraduría General de la Nación, the watchdog that can suspend or dismiss public officials.
Is this connected to her well-known Medellín cases?
No. Carrasquilla built her public reputation on prosecutions of the Oficina de Envigado and other organised crime in Medellín. This case grew out of a separate 2014 investigation into robbery rings operating in northern Colombia, which she ran from her Medellín prosecution office. Blu Radio has reported separate complaints relating to her time directing prosecutors in Medellín, but those are complaints rather than charges before a judge.
Sources: Caracol Radio on the state of the criminal case, Infobae on the criminal and disciplinary files, El Tiempo on the charges and the Valledupar court, El Colombiano on her account of the 2014 investigation, Blu Radio on the prosecuting unit and the robbery-ring case, La Silla Vacía on the adjournments and her resignation from the Medellín council, Semana on Decree 1206 and her first words in the job, Semana on the defence ministry’s own announcement of its vice-ministers, El Nuevo Siglo on the decree and the signatories, El Tiempo on her career and the duties of the vice-ministry, La Silla Vacía on the defence minister’s rank and career
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