Iván Cepeda denounced prosecutor Barbosa for alleged involvement in politics: “He has disqualified Gustavo Petro”

Before the Commission of Investigation and Prosecution of the House of Representatives came a complaint against the Attorney General of the Nation, Francisco Barbosa, for alleged undue political participation during the 2022 elections in Colombia.

The action was initiated by the senator-elect of the Historical Pact, Iván Cepeda Castro, who announced that this Thursday, April 21, he brought his complaint against the official by allegedly failing to comply with the crime of “intervention in politics described in Article 422 of the Criminal Code”.

The congressman, a member of the Democratic Pole, seeks sanctions against the head of the accusing body for his comments against the presidential candidate of the Historical Pact, Gustavo Petro.

For Cepeda, Barbosa's sayings must be explained to understand whether “they are part of a debate of general interest or with them he was openly participating in an electoral controversy,” he said.

The senator even assures that the prosecutor “has disqualified Gustavo Petro” and will therefore provide “comprehensive and detailed evidence” that confirms the alleged political interference in the elections that will define President Iván Duque's successor.

Moreover, according to the petrist parliamentarian, Barbosa “has misrepresented and drawn hasty and biased conclusions about the presidential candidate's proposals for the Historic Pact coalition,” which have become evident in the Colombian and international press.

Iván Cepeda recalled that Petro has not resigned from his seat in the Senate of the Republic, a fact that did not go unnoticed by the head of the Attorney General's Office, who questioned the candidate for the Historical Pact in the column he wrote for the newspaper El Tiempo.

In that space of opinion, Barbosa said that “it is regrettable that Petro intends to be president riding on the country's judicial institutions” and assured that those who dispute the presidency must respect Colombian laws.

Moreover, the head of the accusator even referred to the proposal of social pardon and made very harsh comments against the also head of Human Colombia. “The State is not managed with 'social pardons'. Institutionality will not be improved by proposals that break the rule of law and lead to a disconfiguration of the principle of “legal certainty” arising from judicial judgments within the autonomy of the Judicial Branch. Democracy must be thought of with principles to improve the State, not to suppress it,” said prosecutor Francisco Barbosa.

In this regard, Iván Cepeda referred to the issue and assured that with his criminal action he seeks to demonstrate that “the Attorney General, Barbosa, has violated his duty of impartiality, as well as the principle of public morality” and proceeded to cite the Criminal Code on which his accusations are based.

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