The 1991 Constitution is a coexistence pact of civil society. In its philosophy, values, principles and in its normative body, formal and substantial rules are established. It is a mandatory agreement for all Colombians who permanently live in the territory or abroad.
The superior values of the Political Constitution radiate to the entire system and are the beacon that guides public and private life in the territory of a republic.
Our Constitution turned 32 years old. It is time to review its quality, this is justified to the extent that human beings are fallible, which implies that they move between success and error, so that, after a certain time, they must be subjecting all knowledge and knowledge to trial. institutions in order to improve them.
Therefore, among its unquestionable successes is the consecration of a secular State that implies the separation between the State and religions, the Charter of Human Rights was institutionalized and the existence of an International Human Rights Law materialized.
The conditions were also created to insert Colombia into a globalized world and to recognize in the citizen a member of a universal constitutional democracy.
The values of equality for all before the law and the Rule of Law, human dignity, freedom as autonomy and participation are part of our constitutional culture, but in terms of organization of power it has not been democratic at all.
Contemporary democracy needs the separation and division of powers vertically and horizontally and the equitable distribution of sovereignty among the decentralized territorial entities of public law and what was done was to reinforce the political centralization enshrined in the Political Charter of 1886.
In other words, it prevents the departments from recovering part of the sovereignty they had as sovereign states. The centralization of power in the territory is a legacy of authoritarianism, as the writers of the Political Letter of 1886 clearly stated, who were very clear that political centralization under the guise of a unitary state is nothing more than a version of the absolutism of a distant, distant and alien sovereign power.
About the relationship between democracy and federalism, Luigi Ferrajoli, in ‘principles of law, tells us “…federalism is also a theory of civil liberty and democracy. In the first place because it represents the most valid guarantee of civil liberty and political liberty >> against the dangers of
In conclusion, the Political Charter of 1991 needs to be revised to be transformed into a more democratic text with the incorporation of the federal model of our institutions. The citizens of the departments have been demanding it for a long time and do not want to continue in a state of minority, as Panama was, before recovering its autonomy.
By Eduardo Verano de la Rosa.