The release of about 171 members of the front linewho are imprisoned for alleged crimes that occurred in the framework of the National Strike protests, has already set off the alarms of the international community.
The Democratic Initiative of Spain and the Americas (Idea), a group made up of 20 former heads of State and Government of the region and of the European country, signed a letter in which they drew attention to the implications of this determination made by the Government of Gustavo Petro.
“It is worrying that the Government of Colombia intends to make it easier for people with serious evidence against them of the commission of common crimesevade their responsibilities before justice through collective actions,” they wrote in the letter that is signed by, among others, former Colombian presidents Andrés Pastrana and Iván Duque.
These former presidents defend the position that the opposition has had that the figure of “peace managers” It would only be applicable to members of armed groups that receive this benefit within the framework of a peace process.
Hence, the ex-presidents call attention to the fact that, if the release of these people is consummated, “a progressive weakening of the independence of powers in Colombia and the autonomy of its Justice, essential elements of one of the oldest democracies on the continent”.
Among the signatories are former heads of state and government from Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Spain, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay and Uruguay.
The Minister of Justice, Néstor Osuna, defends that these releases consist of a “measure that seeks reconciliation” and that it is rooted in the recently approved Public Order Law that promoted the Historical Pact in Congress.
“The figure already existed and several governments used it to name spokespersons for members of armed groups. Now the law also allows people who do not belong to those groups, but to social or community organizations to be designated,” Osuna clarified.
The release of the members of the front line It’s a matter of days because President Petro promised that these young people will spend Christmas at home. Although the initial census is for 171 people who would benefit from the measure, at the time the Minister of the Interior, Alfonso Prada, spoke of about 230 prisoners who could be included in the package of those released.