This Thursday, June 28, international law expert Alberto Borea Odría was elected by the General Assembly of the Organization of American States (OAS) as a member judge of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR Court).
Carlos Rodríguez Mejía, from Colombia, was also among the candidates. The non-election of Rodríguez could be understood as a defeat to the government of President Gustavo Petro.
Rodríguez, who is currently the Colombian ambassador to Costa Rica, was the jurist who brought the case of the dismissal ordered by the Attorney General’s Office against the then mayor of Bogotá, Gustavo Petro, to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, which ended with the reinstatement of the president.
According to the Colombian government’s calculations, Rodríguez Mejía was expected to replace the outgoing judge of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and former president of the Constitutional Court of Colombia, Humberto Sierra Porto.
“This is a competitive election within the Organization of American States (OAS) and the fact is that the Government of Colombia failed in its objective of ensuring that its candidacy triumphed in the OAS General Assembly,” said the expert in dialogue with WEEK.
According to Don Henríquez, “what happened today is particularly notable for several reasons. Mainly that Paraguay’s candidacy has achieved the majority among all the candidates is very notable because Paraguay is not one of the large countries in the region and that it has a powerful Foreign Ministry in quotes.”
The international expert added: “Secondly, at a certain point, the Colombian candidacy was pairing up with the Mexican candidacy, due to the ideological affinity that exists between Mexico and Colombia, at least with their current administrations, and in that sense both lost.”
