The Puebla Group requests that the case of Nicolas Petro not develop into “a political weapon in opposition to democratic establishments”

The scandal that has embarrassed Colombian President Gustavo Petro, during which his eldest son and political ally, Nicolas, accepted that his father’s marketing campaign obtained financing exterior the reported books, mobilized some of the seen boards on the left. latin american. And he did it in favor of democratic establishments and in protection of the president. The Puebla Group, a discussion board of progressive leaders, will publish this Wednesday a communication that EL PAIS reveals completely, during which it states that “severe irregularities are happening by way of the implementation of this case, with the particular goal of harming President Petro ”. He additionally remembers that the leftist chief has promised “to supply all of the ensures in order that the method continues its course.”

Led by former presidents Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero (Spain), Ernesto Samper (Colombia) and Rafael Correa (Ecuador), the letter that gathers 38 signatures denounces that the scandal has been utilized in a “delicate coup” in opposition to the Colombian president, with out giving particular names of who could be utilizing the technique they name ‘lawfare’ (the usage of judicial and authorized means to overthrow leftist governments). “We view with deep concern the place of a number of politicians from reactionary sectors of the area, together with some former presidents, who misuse false, deceptive and inaccurate details about the judicial course of that’s investigating one of many sons of the present Colombian president for attainable financing. of their marketing campaign announce and legitimize situations of democratic rupture that solely match of their autocratic minds,” the assertion learn.

The signatories, which embrace jurists from the Latin American Council for Justice and Democracy created by the Puebla group, such because the Spaniards Baltasar Garzon and Enrique Santiago, inform Lawyer Normal Francisco Barbosa to take part within the “delicate coup”: “We ask the Lawyer Normal of the Nation, who has made public his private animosity with President Petro, to chorus from turning this case right into a media strategy of political prosecution, into a brand new lawfare case”.

The denunciation comes after a number of months during which the Puebla Group has denounced as episodes of authorized warfare all kinds of judicial scandals in opposition to progressive politicians, corresponding to those who have affected Dilma Roussef or Luiz Inacio Lula de Silva in Brazil, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner in Argentina, the Bolivian Evo Morales or the Ecuadorian Rafael Correa.

Within the case of the present Colombian authorities, the bench of its political motion has already turned to the inter-American justice system with related arguments. In June, the identical president denounced a “delicate coup” in opposition to him and his motion, after judicial choices in opposition to two congressmen from the Historic Pact and within the midst of an unresolved authorized conflict with Lawyer Normal Margarita Cabello over the feasibility of that it might droop democratically elected officers. On this event, neither the president nor any member of the federal government has spoken of a “delicate coup” within the case of his son Nicolas. Quite the opposite, the Ministers of Protection and International Relations expressed their solidarity this Wednesday morning with prosecutor Barbosa, who has denounced a plan by the ELN guerrilla to assassinate him —one thing that the leaders who’re taking part in a negotiating desk with the Authorities have denied, pointing it out as an try to sabotage.