Colombians are organizing marches at prosecution offices for Friday to demand the resignation of Prosecutor General Nestor Humberto Martinez, who has been submerged in corruption claims.
The initiative was started by a political scientist in December. Since then, calls for protest have spread like wildfire on Twitter.
Anti-corruption activists are calling to bring flashlights, whistles and pamphlets on Twitter where they are calling to “take down the chief prosecutor” who has refused to resign despite his office’s removal from the Odebrecht bribery case that implicates both Martinez and President Ivan Duque.
Over the past week, the citizens’ initiative was supported by Colombia’s centrist and leftist parties that oppose Duque and have grown increasingly vocal about Martinez’ controversial two years in office.
The resignation of Peru’s chief prosecutor over the bribery practices of the Brazilian engineering firm has shaken up Latin American politics ever since it was revealed by the United States’ Department of Justice in December 2016.
Colombia’s Supreme Court removed the entire Prosecutor General’s Office from the case in December after audio revealed Martinez knew about the corruption since 2015 and one of the key witnesses died.
Martinez’ position had already become virtually untenable in 2017 when his hand-picked anti-corruption chief was arrested for corruption. The chief prosecutor’s former right-hand man, who survived two assassination attempts while in custody in Colombia, is currently serving a four-year prison sentence in a prison in Florida.
The United States vs Colombia’s chief prosecutor
The country’s war crimes tribunal that was set up to curb the country’s almost absolute impunity rate additionally accused the prosecution of “categorically meddling with” investigations about crimes committed during the country’s armed conflict.
Martinez, who has used the prosecution’s communications department to defend his shattered reputation, has not responded to the citizen calls for his resignation.