( Spanish) –– The president of the Supreme Court of Justice of Colombia, Fernando Castillo Cadena, expressed this Friday “great concern” about the statements of President Gustavo Petro, who assured that, in accordance with the Constitution, due to his position he is the “boss” of the country’s attorney general.
Castillo Cadena classified Petro’s interpretation of article 115 of the Colombian Constitution as “wrong”, because with it, he says, “he ignores judicial autonomy and independence.” The president has insisted on his opinion through a message on Twitter where he reproduced that article. “The Attorney General of the Nation ––added the magistrate–– does not have a hierarchical superior and is chosen by the Supreme Court of Justice from a shortlist drawn up by the President of the Republic.”
This Thursday, the prosecutor Barbosa had rejected what he classified as State intervention in the work of the Prosecutor’s Office, referring to a message on Twitter on Wednesday, in which the president spoke of a journalistic investigation that attributes the murders and disappearances of citizens to the Clan del Golfo. .
According to Petro stated in that publication, upon being informed of these events by an official of the Criminal and Judicial Investigation Technical Corps (CTI), which is part of the Attorney General’s Office, “senior members” of the institution “refused to act.”
Later, in response to questions from the press during his official visit to Spain, Petro stated, invoking the Constitution: “I am the head of state, therefore its head”
In a reply to those words of the president, Attorney General Francisco Barbosa responded in a public act that “no one can submit to the Colombian justice system, no matter how much power they believe they have within the framework of the Presidency.”
Barbosa added that he will request precautionary measures from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) for the officials of the institution, for himself and for his family, of which he added that he decided to leave the country “for fear of being assassinated.”
The medium of the crossing of statements, the president of the Supreme charged called for “sensible, respect and sanity” between the parties.
