Former vice president Francisco Santos spoke with ‘Vicky en SEMANA’. He did so because of the controversy that has arisen from the fact that the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) will urge the Supreme Court of Justice to elect “as soon as possible” the head of the Attorney General’s Office, “under the precepts of impartiality and institutionality.”
In a press release issued this Tuesday, the organization points out that it is closely monitoring the selection process of the new attorney general and “remembers that the failure to designate an incumbent person could weaken the Colombian justice system.”
Santos accurately questioned the IACHR’s pronouncement and in passing assured that President Gustavo Petro seeks a civil war. “Petro is what he is encouraging. Or do you believe that Petro, when he calls out to the streets, what does he want? Petro only knows how to do that and it turns out that last time when they did it with a front line that he killed, that he murdered, that he set on fire, do you think that the police are going to stop him? It is going to be up to us citizens, I say that very clearly, because what Mr. Petro wants is to create that damage with a demoralized police force.”
“Petro is a liar, he has the power to lie to adjust everything to his perverse reality,” he added, while going ahead to hold a sit-in this Saturday, February 16, to reject the IACHR’s pronouncement. “Because the Court respects itself,” he indicated.
“If we have to go out to defend the Court, to defend it, if the lords of the indigenous minga are going to come to pressure, we will have to organize ourselves too and Mr. Gustavo Petro is going to have a civil war, which is what wants, desires,” Santos added.
Watch the full interview with former vice president Francisco Santos:
“Petro only knows how to do that. He wants to create anxiety and damage with a demoralized Police. “Petro is an almost sick liar, to adjust everything to his perverse view of reality and democracy,” said Francisco Santos. “The biggest lie that Petro has is that he is the victim. He has always been a victimizer. His story in the M-19 is that of a victimizer,” he said.
It is worth remembering that the IACHR, when intervening in Colombia’s internal affairs, assured that The Presidency of the Republic sent “a shortlist made up of people of recognized professional suitability for the position” on August 2, ignoring the times that the Colombian high court has taken in the past. Ángela María Buitrago Ruiz, Amelia Pérez Parra and Amparo Cerón Ojeda make up the shortlist for attorney general.
“However, due to the lack of quorum and, subsequently, the lack of political agreement among the judges, the institution will be under an interim mandate as of February 12, 2024, the date on which the previous period ended. attorney general,” the Commission noted. The inter-American organization stressed that this selection process must be carried out “with transparency and access to information, ensuring the criteria of equality, non-discrimination, training and merit,” in accordance with international and inter-American human rights standards and “free of all type of interference, siege or undue pressure.”
“The Commission highlights that the Attorney General’s Office, by having a monopoly on criminal action, plays a fundamental role in the fight against impunity, access to justice and in the preservation of democracy and the rule of law in Colombia. The absence of a titular person and the appointment of interim persons may affect their independence and autonomy,” the IACHR statement cites.
The organization “called on all levels of the State to prioritize Colombian democratic institutions in the exercise of their functions” and asks the Executive to provide all the necessary guarantees and conditions “for said process to culminate without interference.”
