The relationship between President Gustavo Petro and former Attorney General Francisco Barbosa was marked by deep differences. Although the president presented a shortlist for the Supreme Court of Justice to elect the new head of the prosecuting body, the High Court has taken its time to make the decision, so that Martha Mancera remained as the prosecutor in charge.
Regarding the delay, on February 8, a mobilization took place that ended in moments of tension outside the Palace of Justice, in Bogotá. Given the presence of the protesters, the magistrates were not able to leave the premises. This event was assumed as pressure on the Court to speed up the election.
In the space of , former senator Gustavo Bolívar made a crude x-ray of the tension between the president and the Court.
In the first place, Bolívar considered that these marches should not have been called for that day, given that the magistrates were meeting to try to choose between the shortlist made up of Ángela María Buitrago, Amelia Pérez Parra and Luz Adriana Camargo, but, in the end, none of the candidates reached the 16 votes necessary to be appointed prosecutor.
“That march should never have been scheduled that day. That is giving papaya and we in Petrism are specialists in giving papaya“said Bolívar in
The former congressman also stated that, supposedly, the pressure for the Supreme Court of Justice to choose the next head of the accusing body is being done from social networks and not from the Petro Government.
“The argumentative component already exists and that is that the attorney general, currently in charge, Martha Mancera, has serious commitments and very serious accusations from very serious journalists in this country, of having protected drug traffickers and of having launched an attack against the investigators of the drug dealers. This, by itself, in a decent country, in a decent court, would allow them to make the election of the new prosecutor quickly.”he added.
“There is no tension with the Court”
The events of February 8 gave a lot to talk about. Although the magistrates reported that their free movement was prevented, so that there were those who called what happened a “kidnapping,” Gustavo Bolívar was emphatic in saying that “there was never a threat.”
“They wanted to equate this with a kidnapping. That never happened (…). There was no threat as such to the magistrates, from a statement, from a person with a megaphone or from people saying ‘they don’t come out here’. They simply took the precaution of not going out because, obviously, it is threatening to be surrounded by protesters,” Bolívar said in the
Regarding the tension between Petro and justice, the former congressman asserted that the president “is worried because one of his struggles is the fight against drug trafficking.” This postulate has to do with the person who takes the reins of the Prosecutor’s Office while the new prosecutor is chosen.
“For us it is very worrying that a lady questioned to the core by highly credible journalists in Colombia, for having covered up for some people who were investigating drug traffickers in the Valley, is today the prosecutor,” Bolívar stated in reference to Martha Mancera.
“The president’s concern is that the Supreme Court should quickly choose the replacement for such a questioned lady (…). That’s all. It is not a tension with the Court“, rounded the former senator in
