President of Colombia Gustavo Petro. Photo: X/@petrogustavo.
The president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, criticized the imposition of Martha Janeth Mancera as the interim attorney general of Colombia until the Supreme Court of Justice chooses the new attorney general from the three candidates proposed by the president.
“I cannot agree with how the investigative body has been handed over to people of dubious reputation, with links with organized crime according to media investigations, because organized crime cannot be allowed to control the Attorney General’s Office,” said President Petro on Tuesday, February 13, during the Meeting for Peace and Life in Bucaramanga, held in an auditorium of the Industrial University of Santander (UIS).
On February 12, Mancera took charge of the Attorney General’s Office as a temporary replacement for Francisco Barbosa, whose term ended that day. At the event of handover of charge, ex-Attorney Barbosa said that “whoever becomes the next attorney general, we will receive her in a timely manner and with the best disposition in order to fulfill the work of the corresponding replacement.”
To succeed Barbosa, Petro nominated the jurists Ángela María Buitrago, Amelia Pérez Parra, and Luz Adriana Camargo, out of whom the Supreme Court has to select one. However, in the four rounds of voting held so far by the full bench of the Court, consisting of 23 magistrates, none of the three candidates got the required 16 votes.
The full bench of the Supreme Court will reconvene on February 22 for another round of voting after last week’s session ended without results, amid demonstrations outside the court building and allegations of infiltration of the demonstration by violent elements.
President Petro ratified that he wants the Supreme Court to elect the new attorney general as soon as possible so as not to prolong the interim period of Mancera, who has been accused of having ties with narco-trafficking gangs from Buenaventura, of the Valle del Cauca department. She has also been criticized for not investigating the massacres and the murders of social leaders that continue in Colombia.
Instead, outgoing Attorney General Barbosa tried to investigate Petro on trumped-up charges of “irregular financing” of his presidential campaign, attempting to equate campaign contributions by a teachers’ union with contributions made by narco-trafficking gangs. President Petro stressed that the Constitution of Colombia prohibits the Attorney General’s Office from investigating the president, and added that Barbosa’s actions to initiate a lawfare against him “include torture, pressure on witnesses, and converting completely legal activities into illegal ones.”
The president expressed hope that, for the sake of impartiality, the term of Mancera—whom he considers a pawn of Barbosa—as interim attorney general will be as short as possible.
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According to the Colombian president, the three women jurists whose names he proposed for the next attorney general “have shown courage in defending truth and justice even at the cost of putting their own lives at risk.”
There are allegations that ex-Attorney General Barbosa purposefully delayed the election of his successor. On August 2, 2023, President Petro had submitted the shortlist of three candidates to the Supreme Court for the selection of the next attorney general. However, Barbose did not cooperate with the process, and on the day of his retirement, he left in charge his Deputy Attorney General Mancera.
The United Nations Office for Human Rights also called upon the Supreme Court of Colombia to conclude the process of election of the new attorney general as soon as possible.
“The office stresses the transcendental role that the Attorney General’s Office has in guaranteeing access to justice, democracy, and the rule of law. Therefore, it encourages the Supreme Court to conclude the selection process of the attorney general in the shortest possible time,” the UN said in a statement.
The UN also called on the Colombian government to provide the necessary guarantees during the process.
“The office calls on the State, particularly the Government, to provide guarantees so that the Supreme Court of Justice can conclude the selection of the new attorney general without interference of any kind,” the statement added.
(Telesur) with Orinoco Tribune content
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/SC/DZ
