The governor of Colombia’s northern Cordoba department will appoint replacements of two newly inaugurated, but jailed mayors, said the government Tuesday.
Interior Minister German Vargas Lleras said the Cordoba governor Alejandro Lyons will not allow the mayoral hopefuls currently residing in Bogota’s La Picota prison to assume the positions in local government in the municipalities of Moñitos and Los Cordobas.
Vargas Lleras said “I spoke with the honorable governor of Cordoba, Alejandro Lyons and we made the decision today that he will appoint the interim mayors of the said municipalities.”
According to the minister, according to articles 105 and 106 of Law 136 1994, the governor has the duty to appoint the mayors of the municipalities, taking into account the situation of being deprived of liberty of those who have been elected by popular vote to exercise the said roles.
Jose Felix Martinez of Moñitos and Bonifacio Contreras of Los Cordobas are both being held on charges of links to paramilitaries and murder respectively.
Earlier Tuesday Colombia’s Prosecutor General Viviane Morales said the swearing in of the criminal mayors made a “mockery of the system.”