One year and four months after its deadline to chose a new prosecutor general, Colombia’s Supreme Court elects Viviane Morales.
The Supreme Court announced its decision just after midnight on Thursday.
The election brings an end to a stalemate between the country’s highest court and the President’s Office, whose candidates the Supreme Court had until now failed to elect.
Morales studied administrative law in Paris, France and previously worked for Colombia’s Development Ministry, the national contituent assembly and as a senator.
The attorney will replace acting Prosecutor General Guillermo Mendoza, who assumed the position when in August 2009 the legal term of former PG Mario Iguaran ended and the court still hadn’t picked a successor.
Morales was chosen from a shortlist selected by President Juan Manuel Santos, after the court could not reach consensus on the list drawn up by former President Alvaro Uribe.
The candidates on Uribe’s list were criticized in the media for having no experience in penal law and thus not having the qualifications to lead the Prosecutor General’s Office, which is responsible for trials against politicians with alleged ties to paramilitary death squads, allegedly corrupt officials, and security officials accused of illegally wiretapping government opponents.
Colombia’s State Council announced in November that it would examine whether it was legal for President Juan Manuel Santos to compose a new shortlist of candidates