Around noon on Wednesday, April 19, the President of Colombia, Gustavo Petro Urrego, spoke at the plenary session of the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States (OAS) in Washington DC, United States.
On this site, he recalled when the former attorney general and former Colombian ambassador to the OAS, Alejandro Ordoñez, took away his political rights, by disqualifying him from any public office for 15 years and removing him as mayor of Bogotá for changing the garbage collection system in the capital. Colombian.
“Someone (Alejandro Ordoñez) sat here on behalf of my country a few years after he took away my political rights as an administrative official, not a judicial one, almost for life, a fascist. He even destroyed the possibility of a political change in Colombia. It could not be done due to a decision, a ruling, a sentence that no administrative official said, only a criminal criminal judge can, through a sentence, take away the political rights of any citizen of the Americas,” said President Gustavo Petro in his intervention before the Organization of American States (OAS).
After this disqualification, the former mayor of Bogotá, Gustavo Petro, took the case to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) where on July 8, 2020, it ruled in favor of the now president of Colombia.
“The Court found that the political rights of Mr. Petro were affected as a result of the disciplinary sanction of dismissal as mayor of Bogotá, and disqualification for a term of 15 years to hold public office, which was imposed on him by the Office of the Attorney General of the Republic on December 9, 2013. Additionally, the Court concluded that the validity of the rules that empower the Attorney General’s Office to impose said sanctions on democratically elected officials -as was the case of Mr. Petro- as well as those that have the practical effect of produce an inability to exercise political rights as a result of a decision of the Comptroller, constitute a violation of the American Convention on Human Rights. Likewise, the Court determined that the disciplinary process followed against Mr. Petro violated the principle of jurisdiction, the guarantee of impartiality, the principle of presumption of innocence, and the right to defense,” stated the IACHR ruling in the Gustavo Petro vs. Colombia.
President Gustavo Petro’s agenda for Thursday, April 20 in the United States
On Thursday, April 20, President Gustavo Petro will appear before the United States Congress for a meeting with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
After this he will be in the Chamber. That same Thursday, the President of the Republic of Colombia will be fulfilling his commitment to his US counterpart, Joe Biden, at the White House. The two will be sharing in the Oval Office; that is, in the main office.
According to Karine Jean-Pierre, White House press secretary, the meeting will be to discuss “joint efforts to combat climate change, counter drug trafficking, address our regional migration challenge, and promote democratic values and human rights.” and labor in the region and the world”.
“I thank the President of the United States for his invitation. It is a key moment to strengthen the relationship and mutual cooperation between both countries, not only in the fight against drug trafficking but also in the protection of the Amazon, climate change and rural development,” said the President of the Republic of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, through his profile on the social network Twitter.
After meeting with the US president, the Colombian head of state will be meeting with Nancy Pelosi, one of the top leaders of the US Democratic Party who recently left the presidency of the House. On Friday, April 21, finally, Petro will be with businessmen and multinational directors who were invited by the Wilson Center, the Atlantic Council, the Institute of Peace and Inter-American Dialogue. with Infobae