Colombia struggles to choose new Attorney General amid controversy

February 12, 2024

Mostly peaceful protests in Colombia turned violent at moments late last week, as hundreds of people protested outside the Palace of Justice in an effort to urge Supreme Court justices to choose one of the three AG candidates proposed by president Gustavo Petro. With the current Attorney General stepping down today, the Supreme Court must now vote for one of the three candidates presented to them by the president. The vote held last Thursday was the second round of voting. None of Petro’s three suggested candidates, all women, have received the sixteen votes necessary to be confirmed. Some see this delay as an obstruction of the president’s efforts, considering the animosity between the president and current AG Francisco Barbosa. As a result, Petro called for citizens to take to the streets in protest. The AG selection process is notoriously slow, says La Silla Vacía.

Joshua Collins explained at Pirate Wire Services the long-standing power struggle between the president and the Prosecutor’s office, especially in light of “incredibly low” public confidence in the Prosecutor’s Office due to recent scandals involving “squashing investigations into criminality rather than pursuing them, and even committing illegal actions themselves.” The interim AG, who will take over beginning today, has been “credibly accused of aiding drug traffickers,” write CFR’s Shannon O’Neil and Will Freeman for their weekly blog. 

International Crisis Group’s Renata Segura broke down the legal process and the protests on X (formerly Twitter) and explained the contextual importance of the site of the protest (the M-19 guerilla faction, to which President Gustavo Petro had once belonged to, had taken the Palace of Justice in 1985), causing many to draw parallels between last week’s violence and that of just a few decades ago. She also notes that there has been conflicting news coverage of the protests, with some claiming the Palace of Justice had been breached.

Venezuela 

• Human rights activist Rocío San Miguel was detained by Venezuelan authorities on Friday, with her family reporting not knowing of her whereabouts as of at least yesterday, Sunday. Her imprisonment has been widely criticized as political persecution, with many civil society members and Venezuela-watchers calling for her immediate release. (DW) 

Regional

• “Ricardo Martinelli, a 71-year-old conservative businessman who led Panama from 2009 to 2014, was granted asylum by Nicaragua this week after Panama’s Supreme Court denied his appeal of a money-laundering conviction that carried with it a 10-year prison sentence… Instead of going to prison, he said he intends to continue his presidential campaign from the grounds of the embassy, even though Panama’s Constitution prohibits someone who has been sentenced to five years or more for intentionally committing a crime from running the country,” reports New York Times.

• Through data obtained from the Small Arms and Light Weapons (SALW) Dashboard, Andrei Serbin Pont was able to uncover and track ongoing trends in the illegal weapons market, particularly across Latin America and the Caribbean. (Bellingcat)

• ““Currently, all workers in Colombia and Brazil are facing enormous challenges to organize themselves at the workplace. For refugee and migrant workers without higher education or professional credentials, the obstacles are even greater. In response to this situation, Venezuelan migrant workers and their allies are beginning to organize in labour unions and civil associations to promote decent work in both informal and low-wage formal sectors,” explains ILO in a brief focused on labor conditions and rights.” (via Americas Migration Brief)

Costa Rica

• Questions and criticisms surround campaign finance and transparency in Costa Rica’s recent municipal elections, with some suspecting a growing influence of drug trafficking money, reports El País. 

Ecuador

• “Militarization is not the answer” for Ecuador’s recent surge in organized crime activity, argues Michele Bertelli for NACLA. 

• The increase in femicides in Ecuador has led to more and more women signing up for self defense courses, reports Ojalá.

Migration

• The US Senate’s proposed immigration deal that would have placed new limitations on access to asylum was shot down last week 49-50, explains Jordi Amaral at Americas Migration Brief.

• A Tent survey finds that “the Mexican public is very supportive of brands taking concrete actions to help refugees. Specifically, consumers indicate by a very wide margin that they are more likely to buy from companies hiring refugees.” (via Americas Migration Brief)

Chile

• In Americas Quarterly, Brian Winter blames low trust among leaders, and therefore governments, as an understudied factor regarding the low numbers of regional economic activity. The unexpected passing of former Chilean president Sebatián Piñera, and the heartfelt tributes coming in from across the regional ideological divide, “provided a glimpse of what a more consistently civil politics among Latin America’s leaders might look like.”

Brazil

• Luiza Franco profiles Tarciana Medeiros, the first woman to ever lead the Banco do Brasil (BB), in Americas Quarterly. The BB is currently facing some existential issues, including its role in Brazil’s slave trade, as well as the country’s agrobusiness practices.

• The Guardian covers “Brazil’s illegal hot-air ballooning scene.” 

Argentina

• More than 5.4 million Argentine residents “receive a salary, but do not make contributions to the retirement system,” reports Infobae, explaining trends in informal work across various sectors in the country.

• Javier Milei met with Pope Francis for over an hour, reports Infobae, after the president had routinely lambasted the head of the Catholic Church during his campaign.