Lawyer Amelia Pérez, who until a week ago was voting to be elected as attorney general, resigned from the shortlist sent by President Gustavo Petro to replace Francisco Barbosa in the investigative body.
The news broke on the morning of this Tuesday, March 12, just when the judges of the Supreme Court of Justice were getting ready to hold a new vote, in an extraordinary room convened a week ago by the high court.
The now former candidate pointed out that her resignation is irrevocable and that it responds to several episodes that, according to her, have interfered in the election of who will be the new attorney general. At the outset, Pérez mentioned the episode about old trills from her partner, the former CTI official, Gregorio Oviedo, who some time ago wrote messages on his personal Twitter account criticizing former prosecutor Barbosa, the Supreme Court and several journalists.
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“The decision taken, honorable magistrates, is due to the emergence and interference of factors foreign to a calm and peaceful election, which have been crossed by disturbing episodes, such as, for example, the questioning of opinions other than the subscribed one disseminated in the called social networks, but which, absurdly, have been attributed to me without any basis, in an abnormal position of wanting to apply the non-existent ‘crime of opinion,'” Pérez said.
This is the full letter:
The former candidate continued her letter by pointing out that there is an aggravating circumstance: “Such opinions are the exclusive, and exclusive, elaboration of a third party, but that their consequences, incredibly, must be assumed by a person other than the one who issued them, in a clear ignorance of the universal principle. of criminal law, according to which, responsibility is strictly individual and/or personal.”
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As a second episode, the former candidate for the Prosecutor’s Office pointed out: “The unprecedented episodes that emerged in this election process have knocked on the doors of perhaps the most important virtue of every human being, equally very personal, such as DIGNITY, unjustly outraged and reviled by circumstances. completely unrelated to those who acquired the status of passive subject of such absurdities, without leaving aside the fact that, apparently, we, the undersigned and my entire family environment, are witnessing a re-victimization that seems to have no end, apart from gender violence based on trills whose authorship is completely unrelated to the undersigned.”
Thirdly, Amelia Pérez explained to the Supreme Court of Justice that her resignation was also due to “the imperative need and obligation to leave safe from all risk and danger, the most existentially precious thing that I have: my children Manuel Antonio and Nicolás Gregorio, my permanent life partner and my family in general.”
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The letter from the former candidate ends by saying: “The only thing that guided me from the moment of the deference and honor that the President of the Republic gave me was, apart from discussing my experience and knowledge in the field of the criminal investigation, the natural scenario of the Prosecutor’s Office’s competence, was to contribute to the achievement, or at least try to mitigate its causes, of those supreme goods that our Political Charter consecrates and protects, such as social justice and a lasting peace for all our people.”
With Pérez’s resignation, it is not clear what lies ahead in the election process. Although there is no clear rule that sets the pace of the vote, the ball is in the court of the Plenary Chamber of the Supreme Court, which is currently meeting in the Palace of Justice. Only there will it be decided whether the magistrates can vote for the two remaining candidates: Luz Adriana Camargo and Ángela María Buitrago. Or if, on the contrary, the president has to complete the shortlist so that he can continue the election.
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