In the midst of the controversy that has been generated once morest the power of the Attorney General’s Office to suspend officials elected by popular vote from their positions, the head of the Public Ministry, Margarita Cabello, has just announced two new sanctions once morest mayors from San Juan de Nepomuceno, Bolívar; Wilfrido Alfonso Romero Vergara; and from Timaná, Huila, Marco Adrián Artunduaga, for allegedly participating in politics by apparently supporting the presidential candidate Federico Gutiérrez, during an event organized by the National Federation of Municipalities, on April 7 in Cartagena.
This suspension, like those announced last week by the Attorney General, among which were the mayor of Medellín, Daniel Quintero; and from Ibagué, Andrés Fabián Hurtado, will be for a period of three months.
The investigation of the control entity points out that in the case of Mayor Romero Vergara, apparently, he would have offered to contribute 40 thousand votes in favor of a presidential candidate of the Team for Colombia, Federico Gutiérrez, while Marco Adrián Artunduaga, apparently, externalized his support to the same candidate.
Although the debate is open on the power of the Attorney General’s Office to suspend these officials, following the IACHR ruling that states that this decision can be made “exclusively” by a judge of the Republicfrom the control body they pointed out, when announcing these two new suspensions that, “it is appropriate to avoid a possible repetition of the offense, since the evidence in the film records shows that, apparently, they participated in activities of political parties or movements, “behavior that is prohibited given their status as public servants, and with this they were able to break the principles of equality and transparency that support the elections.”
In this case, the Attorney General’s Office not only ratifies that it has the power to issue these sanctions, but also, by way of warning, indicates that they will continue to do so if these alleged acts of political participation continue to be presented in the framework of the presidential campaign, by public officials, regardless of whether they hold office by appointment or by popular election.
“It might be presented once more, because we are on the way to the presidential election and the candidate for whom they allegedly participated in politics is in the electoral contest,” the Attorney General’s Office said in a statement.
And it is that apparently a new batch of suspensions of this type is coming, as is noted with the decision to initiate a disciplinary investigation once morest the local leaders of María La Baja, Raquel Victoria Sierra Cassini; Cicuco, José Nicolás Ramos Pastrana; Santa Rosa de Lima, Mario José Rodríguez Hernández; Villanueva, Edwin Puerta Orozco; and Arenal, Eugenio Lobo Quiñónez, municipalities located in the department of Bolívar.
The warning was made by the attorney Margarita Cabello herself, who stated that “local leaders have to understand, and cannot ignore, that they are no longer ruling for their political party or movement, but rather are at the service of citizens.”
The mayor of Medellín, Daniel Quintero, has already filed a tutela action with which he hopes that his political rights will be protected. In addition, the official request for precautionary measures will be presented to the IACHR, so that the rights of Quintero and those who voted for him to assume the mandate of the capital of Antioquia are respected.
The legal team, made up of lawyers Héctor Carvajal and Carlos Rodríguez, announced that they will be in Washington on Monday, at the headquarters of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, where they will not only make the request, but also hope to meet with the executive secretary and staff of the international entity, explaining what they consider “an open challenge by the Government of Colombia to the decision of the Inter-American Court.”
