Colombian president confirms ousting of Bogota mayor

[gbscar]

BOGOTA (Reuters) - The mayor of Colombia's capital city Bogota was ousted from his post on Wednesday, President Juan Manuel Santos said in a controversial decision that could affect May presidential elections and a peace process with left-wing rebels.

Gustavo Petro, 53, a former guerrilla, was dismissed from his post by the inspector general in December last year over mismanagement but stayed pending a run of judicial appeals, the last of which ended on Tuesday and did not reverse the decision.

His dismissal and a 15-year ban from holding public office was viewed as too harsh, even among those who did not support Petro. The case has become a political hot potato amid perceptions the decision may have sought to undermine leftists.

The Inter-American Commission of Human Rights called late on Tuesday for the decision by Colombia's highest judicial authority judging cases involving government bodies to suspend its decision and allow Petro to serve the rest of his mandate.

But in a declaration naming Labor Minister Rafael Pardo Rueda interim mayor, Santos said that request was not legally binding, that Petro's appeal process had been exhaustive and his dismissal was now unavoidable.

(...)

Santos said the Council of State, the last entity to hear the judicial appeal, had informed Petro that he still had other mechanisms of judicial defense to which he could turn, without giving further detail.

http://www.vagazette.com/news/sns-rt-us-colombia-mayor-20140319,0,3083649.story

[Sarah Ibarruri]

1. Some issues about carrying garbage out of the city in dump trucks or something nt

[gbscar]

2. Santos ignores international court ruling, replaces Bogota mayor

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos ignored a ruling of an international court Wednesday and signed off on the controversial impeachment of Bogota’s embattled mayor, the leftist Gustavo Petro.

Following the signing of the decree, Santos took to the airwaves to explain that the removal of the mayor of the country’s capital was consistent with all Colombian laws and that international law defending citizens’ rights to elect and be elected did not apply.

(...)

Immediately after being notified of his impeachment, Petro took to the balcony of the mayoral palace to speak before gathered supports.

The leftist former mayor said that his impeachment was a “coup” bought with the “blood and money from cocaine” before adding that President Santos had “lied” about respecting the IACHR’s precautionary measures.

http://colombiareports.co/santos-ignores-international-court-approves-dismissal-bogota-mayor/

[gbscar]

3. Some of the arguments in favor and some of the arguments against

The general question being debated here:

In Colombia there is a very grave contradiction between the [Inter] American convention … and the [Colombina] Constitution,” Montoya told Colombia Reports.

Whereas the Inter-American convention — which Colombia signed in Costa Rica in 1969 and incorporated into its national legislation in Law 16, 1972 — states that an official elected by public vote can only be dismissed following criminal proceedings before a judge – our legal system allows this dismissal to be carried out by an administrative officer such as Ordoñez.

The question then is which is more powerful – Colombia’s Constitution or the international law that it has committed itself to?

The dilemma is that while Article 4 of the Constitution sets itself out as the “supreme law,” further down, Article 93 reads that “International treaties … that recognize human rights … have priority domestically.”

This unfortunate clash is an issue that the IACHR will have to analyse and pass judgement on, hopefully in the near future. Whatever conclusion they come to, the ball will then fall into Colombia’s field.

http://colombiareports.co/petro-vs-colombia-can-international-bodies-save-bogotas-mayor/

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Arguments against the decision by President Santos to confirm the dismissal of Mayor Gustavo Petro:

As described by former Constitutional Court magistrate Alfredo Beltran, “The Constitutional Court says that when precautionary measures by the IACHR, or provisional measures by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights are dictated in order to protect a fundamental right, these decrees are obligatory for all [member] states.”

“They’re not mere suggestions or requests that might or might not be fulfilled. They have a binding force,” Beltran concluded.

http://colombiareports.co/santos-ignores-international-court-approves-dismissal-bogota-mayor/

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And in favor of the decision made by Santos today (translated and summarized from Spanish):

Precautionary measures from the IACHR have only been considered binding by Colombia when they concern the protection of life and integrity, not for the protection of political rights. Past Constitutional Court decisions have only referred to the decisions to protect life, whenever they considered such rulings to be obligatory.

In fact, the Constitutional Court has also confirmed the dismissal of Senator Piedad Córdoba as valid, who had argued that popularly elected officials couldn't be dismissed nor stripped of political rights because it would be against the Inter-American convention, just like what Petro is arguing now. That argument was rejected last year.

If the IACHR measures were accepted, then that would potentially open the floodgates for thousands of similar demands and lawsuits in favor of anyone, including people who aren't left-wing nor in the opposition, who has been previously dismissed in the same manner.

http://www.eltiempo.com/colombia/bogota/destitucion-de-petro-cuatro-razones-juridicas-detras-de-la-decision-_13688095-4

[Judi Lynn]

4. For what it's worth, from the NY Times, 4 days ago:

In Colombia, Two Warring Officials Provide a Portrait of a Nation’s Political Divide
By WILLIAM NEUMAN
MARCH 15, 2014

BOGOTÁ, Colombia — The political battle royale playing out between the mayor of Bogotá and the country’s powerful inspector general, who ordered him removed from office, has been compared to a Latin soap opera. But as it drags on, it more closely resembles an absurdist drama in which two actors alternately fascinate and irritate their audience with squabbling, philosophizing and the occasional kick in the pants.

The conflict has captivated the nation since the inspector general, Alejandro Ordóñez, ruled in December that the mayor, Gustavo Petro, had violated the law in 2012 by switching Bogotá’s garbage collection from private companies to a city-run service.

Mr. Ordóñez determined that Mr. Petro’s transgressions — he was also accused of mismanaging the handover — were so serious that he should lose his job and be barred from public office for 15 years. The punishment seemed excessive to enough citizens that it provoked widespread sympathy for the mayor, who called supporters into the streets to protest, then urged them to flood the courts with petitions to keep him in his job.



Mayor Gustavo Petro.
Credit Meridith Kohut for
The New York Times

Coming as the national government is seeking a peace deal with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, the guerrillas who have fought the government for 50 years, the altercation in Bogotá has taken on added significance because it pits icons of the left and right against each other.

More:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/16/world/americas/in-colombia-two-warring-officials-provide-a-portrait-of-a-nations-political-divide.html

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It's a real shame.

Hope Petro will come up with another way to challenge this conspicuously political act against the left in Colombia.