Not so fast: International Court rushes to Bogota Mayor’s aid and demands Petro stay in office

[Judi Lynn]

Not so fast: International Court rushes to Bogota Mayor’s aid and demands Petro stay in office
Mar 19, 2014 posted by Daniel E Freeman

Just when Colombia believed that the political career of Bogota’s mayor Gustavo Petro was over, an international court on Wednesday ordered Colombia’s national authorities to keep the dismissed mayor in office until the end of his term.

Near midnight late Tuesday night, the Washington DC headquartered Inter-American Commission for Human Rights (IACHR), which has been a distant player in this ongoing mayoral ordeal for some time, rushed to Petro’s aid following a high court announcement allowing his dismissal from office.

“The commission orders that Colombia immediately suspend the effects of the decision of December 9 2013, emitted and ratified by the Inspector General’s office January 13, 2014, in order to guarantee the exercise of political rights of Mr. Gustavo Francisco Petro Urrego and allow him to complete the period of time, for which he was elected to serve as the mayor of Bogota on October 30 2011,” said the IACHR in a communication released last night.

Prior to this announcement, Colombia’s State Council rejected the final set of appeals made by the former guerrilla turned politician, ultimately ruling in favor of the decision of Inspector General Alejandro Ordoñez to have Petro removed from his elected position and face a 15 year ban from serving public office.

More:
http://colombiareports.co/fast-international-court-rushes-bogota-mayors-aid/

[gbscar]

1. Good for Petro. Unfortunately, in the long term, this may also benefit parapoliticians as well n/t

[Judi Lynn]

2. Colombia should stop Bogota mayor's ouster: rights commission

Colombia should stop Bogota mayor's ouster: rights commission
By Luis Jaime Acosta and Peter Murphy
BOGOTA Wed Mar 19, 2014 3:26pm EDT

(Reuters) - The Inter-American Commission of Human Rights has called on Colombia to suspend a decision to oust the mayor of its capital, putting pressure on President Juan Manuel Santos to intervene in the sensitive case just as his re-election campaign begins.

Gustavo Petro, 53, Colombia's second-most powerful official and a former leftist guerrilla, is set to be ousted in around 10 days after appeals failed to overturn the inspector general's decision which also bans him from public office for 15 years.

That decision last December by the right-wing official, Alejandro Ordonez, was widely seen as disproportionate and an attack on a left-wing politician that would bar him from running in presidential elections in 2018.

Ordonez's unilateral ruling, punishing Petro for his disastrous attempt to put waste collection back under public management, set off protests in Bogota over a case that could impact upcoming elections and the country's peace process.

More:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/19/us-colombia-mayor-ouster-idUSBREA2I1WC20140319?rpc=401&feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews&rpc=401