The move I
Last Friday, President Petro’s defender, Mauricio Pava, played a very risky card politically, but probably very effective in legal terms. Pava asked the Chamber’s Impeachment Commission for that legislative cell to demand all the processes being carried out today by the National Electoral Council against the head of state and his campaign for the alleged violation of limits. According to Pava, the president has constitutional jurisdiction and, therefore, can only be investigated by the Congress of the Republic. Despite the CNE’s investigations in this regard – it was even said that a presentation was ready in which it would accuse the president and his campaign –, Pava urged the Accusation Commission to reaffirm this exclusive jurisdiction. If Congress claims jurisdiction, the CNE would have its hands tied.
The move II
This case has similarities with a well-known controversy from the past: the one between the then prosecutor Eduardo Montealegre and the then comptroller Sandra Morelli. The latter attempted to investigate Montealegre fiscally for the Saludcoop scandal. The conflict was resolved in favor of the former prosecutor based on the concept of “comprehensive jurisdiction” that he enjoyed as a constitutional person – like the head of state. This was established by the Constitutional Court in ruling SU 431 of 2015. A precedent that could be legally very beneficial for Petro, but which also reveals, from a political perspective, that the House of Nariño is afraid of a statement of objections from the CNE. A final fact: Mauricio Pava’s request to the Accusation Commission was addressed to representative Alirio Uribe, of the Historical Pact, who is a friend of the president.
Cleaning Mission
As a result of accusations of corruption in the government, the president has been narrowing his circle of trust. In addition to Laura Sarabia, who is today in Dapre, there are the legal secretary of Palacio Paula Robledo and Carlos Carrillo at the head of the Risk Management Unit. The government seeks to promote an anti-corruption strategy starting from within to the point that it is planned to hire an international firm to carry out a forensic audit on the peace funds and UNGR projects. This measure will be carried out in collaboration with the Judicial Defense Agency, an entity that will appear in criminal proceedings to collaborate and support the Prosecutor’s Office with information. The task was entrusted by Petro to Laura Sarabia directly.
The squires
Now that the Government of President Gustavo Petro has entered into a phase of internal readjustment to face the two long years that remain in his mandate, in his closest circle some chips have begun to move that, according to some sources, are fighting for something like the role of the one who most defends the head of state. In the Casa de Nariño there has been talk that, supposedly, the director of Social Prosperity, Gustavo Bolívar, is in this vein; the superintendent of Societies, Cielo Rusinque; and the head of the Risk Unit, Carlos Carrillo. The three have sought prominence as Petro’s squires and the three are often listened to in the main office of the Palace. Some voices warned that there would also be a bid for the presidential nod to project themselves as his successor.
Diplomatic adjustments
Rumors also spread through the corridors of the San Carlos Palace. The designated vice chancellor Daniel García-Peña has been seen followed at the main headquarters of the Foreign Ministry, among other things, due to the connection that he should make with Francisco Coy, who currently occupies that position before going to Uruguay as ambassador. But the decree that makes García-Peña’s return official has not left the House of Nariño. And that’s where the murmurs come. There are sources that assure that Chancellor (e) Luis Gilberto Murillo wants to resume his position as ambassador in Washington and that, given that, the designated vice chancellor could reach the main position; But, according to other officials, the movements that have been made during the three months in office after Álvaro Leyva’s suspension would show Murillo’s alleged interest in staying. In any case, the final decision on everything rests with President Petro and will be known this week.
facial recognition
The Registry Office and the Police are preparing an agreement so that facial biometric verification of a person’s identity can be carried out in police procedures. The intention is that the uniformed officers can access all the data of the citizen who is the subject of the process digitally and more quickly. A pilot test has already been carried out in Bogotá with 140 police officers and, seeing that it worked, this tool began to be extended to another 20,000 uniformed officers and it is intended to be national in scope. The two entities said they are guarantors of the data shared and collected, in order to avoid leaks or falsifications of identities.
Prevention
A few days ago, the Center for Religion, Reconciliation and Peace at the University of Winchester and the organization We Surround Dialogue launched a document with public policy recommendations to strengthen civil protection processes in communities. Researcher Andrei Gómez-Suárez presented three emblematic cases of unarmed civil protection in Nariño, which resort to football, spirituality and dialogue to open humanitarian spaces in conflict zones such as Magui Payán, Samaniego and Policarpa. The event also featured the participation of Giovanni Álvarez, director of the JEP prosecutor’s office. One piece of information he gave caught attention. He said that in the first quarter of 2024, the JEP received more requests from victims and social leaders to hold community prevention workshops than requests to access armored vans and bodyguards.
To keep looking for them
It did not have much media coverage, but last Thursday the National Search System for Missing Persons was created, which aims to bring together all the institutions and organizations with responsibility for the issue. This is because, according to records from the Missing Persons Search Unit, of the 99,235 people registered in databases of the Comprehensive System for Peace, 90,088 remain missing. Starting this week, the Minister of Justice, Néstor Osuna, the Attorney General, Luz Adriana Camargo, and the director of the UBPD, Luz Yaneth Forero, will put the system into operation, which for the first time is part of a National Development Plan. according to decree 0532, signed by the ministries of Justice and the Interior and the Administrative Department of the Presidency and Social Prosperity. It is, above all, the fruit of decades of work by victims’ organizations, which have not stopped putting pressure on the authorities to find their loved ones.
advanced
The Bogotá civil engineer Diana Díaz Castro, who since 2021 has been the supervisor of the United Nations Sustainable Insurance Principles (PSI) program in Geneva, Switzerland, was included in the seventh edition of the “Forbes 30 under 30, Europe 2024” list, with the that the prestigious magazine exalts the power that young people have to transform companies and society. The PSI is a collaboration between the United Nations and private financial institutions – including banks, investors and insurers – to mobilize the financial sector towards sustainable development. After graduating from the National University of Colombia and thanks to the Colciencias Global Nexo agreement, he studied at Cornell University (United States), where he worked on optimizing aspects of the programming of autonomous vehicles and designing a system for their operation in New York. She then completed postgraduate degrees at the University of Oslo (Norway), in energy, environment and sustainable development, and in the United Kingdom, at the University College of London, in transportation and urban planning.
MICROLINGOTS
By ÓSCAR ALARCÓN NÚÑEZ
At bringing people together, those at Fecode are masters.
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Palestine is a victim of expansion… zionism.
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Petro assures that he will remain until August 7, 2026… but he will be late.
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At the government meeting in Villa de Leyva, the president put on a ruana.
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Could it be that Petro is living on a whim?
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General Motors requested the resignation.
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