MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Defendant sentenced to nearly 40 years for involvement in Pecci's murder

“She should have been given the maximum sentence,” Pecci's mother said

Defendant Margareth Lizeth Chacón Zúñiga was sentenced Thursday by a court in Cartagena to 39 years and 10 months in prison for her involvement in the murder of Paraguayan anti-Mafia Prosecutor Marcelo Pecci in May 2022 while honeymooning in Colombia. Pecci's family requested for Chacón the maximum sentence of 47 years in prison.

Chacón “participated in the coordination meetings not only in Cartagena but also in Medellín,” the Prosecution explained the Prosecution in one of the hearings. investigating entity during the hearings of the case. For that, she was convicted of the crimes of aggravated homicide; and manufacturing, trafficking, carrying, or possession of firearms, accessories, parts, or ammunition.

The investigation revealed that she attended at least four meetings between May 5 and 8, 2022, in which details of the logistics and financing of the assassination were defined. One of the meetings took place in Medellín and three more in Cartagena. “You are the co-author, with malice aforethought, of the crime of aggravated homicide in concurrence with the crime of illegal possession of weapons,” said prosecutor Burgos about Chacón.

On May 5, 2022, when Pecci was already in Cartagena, she met in a restaurant in the Las Palmas sector of Medellín, with defendants Ramón Emilio Pérez Hoyos (Chacón's brother-in-law), Andrés Felipe Pérez Hoyos (Chacón's partner), and Francisco Luis Correa Galeano, who is believed to have been the main coordinator of the crime and is now the star witness in the case. According to the Prosecutor's indictment, the criminal plan was conceived, as such, on May 8, 2022. Pecci was killed on May 10, 2022.

Hitman Wendre Still Scott; Marisol Londoño and Cristian Camilo Monsalve, who did follow-up work; and Eiverson Adrián Zabaleta, who did transport work, were sentenced to 47 years in prison. Francisco Luis Correa, who initially pleaded not guilty, accepted charges, while brothers Ramón and Andrés Pérez Hoyos, who financed the attack, were also convicted after accepting charges.

“The truth is that I no longer have any hope of ever finding out,” the truth, said Maricel Albertini, Pecci's mother in Asunción. “To tell the truth, I am not happy. She should have received the maximum sentence, because she was the driving force behind everything, although she was not the direct perpetrator, she was the one who conceived, planned, and paid for the whole crime, the one who orchestrated everything with the help of Francisco Correa,” she added.

“She should have been given the maximum sentence, which was what our lawyer asked for, but she was given 39 years. This person should die in jail and suffering, just as she made a whole family suffer. The Prosecutor's Office is not going to appeal, I believe the defense is going to appeal, but the truth is that I am not satisfied,” she went on.

Pecci's mother regretted that Chacón never provided any information leading to the moral author of the crime. ”She knows (who the moral author is), at least a part of the link knows,” she stressed.