Colombia’s Supreme Court announced Friday it had opened a criminal investigation against the country’s Inspector General, Alejandro Ordoñez, over his decisions concerning the bribery of Congressmen to approve the 2006 re-election of President Alvaro Uribe.
Ordoñez, almost immediately after his installment earlier this year, announced he would not continue his predecessor’s investigation into high government officials suspected of bribing Congressmen, but would start anew.
Less than two weeks later the Inspector General announced he had not found any evidence the government officials were involved in the bribery, while the Congressmen Yidis Medina and Teodolindo Avendaño already had been convicted.
Media then reported that the previous Inspector General, Edgardo Maya, already had ended the investigation and had concluded high government officials, including current Social Welfare Minister Diego Palacio, were guilty to be disciplinarily punished for the bribery.
Ordoñez defended his decision saying “the king is dead, long live the king,” meaning the decision of his predecessor did not count, because he was no longer in charge of the Inspector General’s Office.
The Court will now investigate this decision after a lawsuit filed by opposition Congressmen German Navas Talero of Polo Democratico.