The Minister of the Interior, Luis Fernando Velasco, explained President Gustavo Petro’s annoyance with the functioning of the Prosecutor’s Office and the election of Francisco Barbosa’s successor. He assured that they seek to affect his Government and the president goes to the citizens to defend himself.
According to the head of the political portfolio, the events that occurred on February 8 and the previous days have their origin in the investigation that has been followed by the contribution of 500 million pesos from the Colombian Federation of Educators (Fecode) to Colombia Humana, in support of the presidential campaign.
For Velasco, it is a legitimate and legal contribution, but one that has been sought to be criminalized to affect the national government. The Prosecutor’s Office has collected evidence in this regard in order to determine if there was any illegality, but for some sectors, it does not have the authority to carry out this investigation.
“The President was notified by a media outlet that the Prosecutor’s Office will charge three officials of his government who were part of the campaign for that contribution and that they will transfer the file to the Commission of Accusations. The objective is to see how they remove the President from power,” Velasco assured El Tiempo.
Information has been released about the possible accusation against Ricardo Roa, president of Ecopetrol and manager of the campaign; William Velandia, president of Fecode; and Dagoberto Quiroga, superintendent of Public Services and former president of Colombia Humana. However, it is not officially confirmed that an indictment will be filed against those mentioned.
President Petro, as a result of this information, according to Velasco, asked for “the solidarity of the country in the world to defend democracy.” Fecode was one of those who responded to that call as a union center, and called for the demonstrations that took place on the 8th. of February.
The minister assured that it is not true that the magistrates were kidnapped or without security. According to what he said, they were counting on police personnel to dissolve the blockade, which he considers a mistake, carried out in front of the Supreme Court, but President Gerson Chaverra asked them not to carry out that action.
This was also pointed out by President Petro from the Governors’ Summit held in Cartagena. “There was no magistrate injured, no magistrate taken out by helicopter, there was no kidnapping, they could always leave and enter as they wanted. What’s more, they did not go out because they told the Police General that they did not want to go out, but rather that they were going to work more, until the time they left,” said the head of state.
Petro assured that he gave the order to the Police to clear the surroundings of the Palace of Justice, but the magistrates told General William Salamanca that there was no need. However, he assured that a false news narrative was constructed that sought to equate the events with the seizure of the building in 1985 because he belonged to the M-19.
For President Petro, the objective is to prevent the election of one of the women he presented in the shortlist for attorney general. According to him, the reason is that he proposed “decent people”, which has caused a problem that had not been seen when questioned names were proposed to lead the prosecution body.
Velasco pointed out that the demonstrations were not held to pressure the justices of the high court. “We are not interested in putting pressure on the Court and it is for something basic: we are not clumsy. Trying to pressure her would be counterproductive in what a good part of the country, and the Government, believes should happen. There must be a normal and slow change in the leadership of the Prosecutor’s Office,” he said.
Likewise, the head of the political portfolio pointed out that there is no institutional clash, but rather an annoyance between the national government and the current leadership of the Prosecutor’s Office, which “came about a premature attempt at a political campaign, which sought to affect the figure of the President.” and that damages the fundamental democratic pact,” he explained. With Infobae