The Attorney General's Office of Colombia has decided to provisionally suspend the Pacto Histórico congresswoman in the Lower House, Gloria Arizabaleta, after she ordered the separation of Gustavo Petro from the Presidency for his alleged political participation during the electoral campaign, a measure that came just one day after her controversial resolution.
Relying on her position as president of the Commission of Investigation and Accusation of the House of Representatives, Arizabaleta sent a document attaching around twenty of Petro's social media posts which, in her opinion, would evidence this intervention in the electoral contest, violating the principle of independence required by the regulations.
However, the Attorney General's Office maintains that Arizabaleta would have committed a very serious disciplinary offense by attributing powers to herself that do not legally correspond to her and emphasizes that her action could constitute a possible crime of prevarication, as reported by Blu Radio.
The decision unleashed a wave of criticism from both the government bloc and opposition sectors, who denounced possible hidden motives aimed at victimizing Petro and facilitating his presence in the second round electoral campaign after a possible temporary suspension from office.
In line with what several experts in Constitutional Law have expressed, leaders from across the Colombian political spectrum recalled that the Senate is the only body with the power to suspend the president, once the case has been presented and debated in the Lower House, a point that Arizabaleta later tried to qualify through a new document.