the president of the Senate, Ivan Name, you already have in your desktop of the three that sent the president Gustavo Petro for the election of the new magistrate of the Constitutional Court, in replacement of Alejandro Linares.
It's about three people who have held office in the Government, which led to an avalanche of criticism with respect to the suitability of their application.
The triplet is composed of a Sky Rusinque, who was the Director for almost a year to the SPD. She is a lawyer from the Universidad Externado de Colombia, and has a master's degree in constitutional law. In addition to being close to president Petro, took part in the list of the House of Representatives by the Historical agreement.
Accompanies Rusinque, Vladimir Fernandez, legal secretary of the Presidency; he graduated from the Universidad Externado de Colombia, and has a specialization in Administrative Law. He was a delegate of the Attorney-general to the Council of State and made a part of the team of splicing in the District of Bogotá, in 2011, when the now president won the Mayor's office.
It is also a candidate Gerardo Vega, the current director of the National Land Agency. He is a lawyer from the Catholic University of Colombia and has a master's degree in Political Communication from the University EAFIT. He has over 17 years of experience in issues related to Land Restitution. In addition, it became part of the Popular Liberation Army (EPL), until the guerrillas signed the peace in 1990.
The procedure
For the election of a magistrate, the Senate shall enter to perform various public hearings with the postulates and then the plenary, with a secret vote, will decide who comes to the Court.
The Constitution, in article 232, fixed a few requirements for someone to get to that charge: to be colombian by birth, to be a lawyer and not have been convicted by a court judgment a penalty involving deprivation of liberty, except for political offences or unintentional.
In addition, paragraph 4 stipulates that the applicant must be occupied for at least 15 years, positions in the Branch. Court or the Public prosecutor, or have carried out, at the same time, the legal profession or the university chair in legal disciplines.
But the article 240 of the constitution stipulates that may not be judges of the Constitutional Court. those who during the year prior to the election have served as Ministers or Justices of the Supreme Court or the Council of State.
This point has been the subject of discussion the last few days, as compared to the specific case of Sky Rusinque, who was at the front of the DPS, an organism with ministerial rank; However, some experts maintain that this condition is not given the post of minister. This is because article 235 of the Constitution grants them a special jurisdiction to the department directors, but does not consider the ministers, so that they would apply the disability.
Carlos Alberto Zambrano, exconsejero of State, said at THE TIME that Rusinque would not be prevented to be ternate. “It is one thing to have a charge that has the same rank of a minister and it's another thing to have served as a minister, so in that sense I do not see the downside”.
Face of criticism that the ternados were Government officials, Zambrano said “it's normal” that kind of applications. “The President is not going to ternar to someone you don't know. President Juan Manuel Santos, in his time, ternó to someone close to him, the exmagistrado Carlos Bernal”.
However, Juanita Goebertus, director for the Americas at Human Rights Watch, was the first to question the shortlist: “have a little independence” and “limited constitutional experience”.
For John David Bazzani, a professor of criminal law of the Externado University, the members of the panel have not had a dedication to a career in the high court. “I think he has to appoint individuals who have knowledge and merit to get to the bench That Court. I miss the presidents (whoever he is) will privilege to put on the Court to political activists and non-lawyers,” said Bazzani. hernando herrera mercado, executive director of the Corporation for Excellence in Justice, he said that the short list is “not surprising” the entire time that some of the names had already rung to integrate it.
He stressed that “this is one of the few times in history in which a President -since the creation of the Constitutional Court - choose to integrate the shortlist with people in your immediate circle at the institutional level”. Herrera, like Goebertus expressed its concern with regard to ensuring the independence “for the exercise of a function as important as the judiciary in the Constitutional Court”.
