The administrative court of Colombia’s capital has rejected an appeal accusing Colombia’s Inspector General of contempt against court, affirming that the IG did not act against a ruling that impeded him from continuing in the process of dismissal of Bogota’s Mayor due to the official’s failed reform of the city’s waste disposal system.
The administrative court of Cundinamarca – the state surrounding the capital city of Bogota – has denied that Colombia’s Inspector General Alejandro Ordoñez broke the restrictions imposed upon him by a magistrate of the same court, after the judge ruled on January 14 that the IG must stop with proceedings until a citizen’s writ of protection — a written document that can be filed by any citizen in protection of fundamental rights and which must be seen to by a judge within 10 days –which had been approved by the magistrate had been consequently been revised by the State Council.
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The same Colombian citizen who submitted the initial writ — Jose Gotardo Perez – then presented the court with another one claiming that the IG’s delivery of an edict to mayor Petro confirming his dismissal 10 days after magistrate Jose Maria Armenta’s ruling went against the Court of Cundinamarca’s requirements.
“To have provided a notice [of dismissal] by edict, rather than constitute a breaking of the order [by the court], establishes itself as an additional guarantee,” stated the Court of Cundinamarca, according to Colombian newspaper El Tiempo. “The Inspector General’s Office has strictly complied with the verdict of this court and within the required terms.”
The court declared that as the Inspector General’s Office did not send the request for Petro’s dismissal to Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, nor register the sanctions against Petro while the writ is being decided on by the State Council, the IGO did not break the imposed limitations.
Colombian citizen Perez’s first writ of protection, which along with various others is currently keeping the dismissal process on hold, defended the right of him and his co-nationals to elect and be elected.
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Mayor Petro’s case has been the subject of a multitude of court proceedings since the announcement of his dismissal by Ordoñez on December 9, supposedly due to the mayor’s failed reform of the capital waste collection services. His appeal is currently also in the hands of the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights (IACHR) in Washington.
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