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(CNN Spanish) – The request of the Colombian Defense Minister, Carlos Holmes Trujillo, to the Constitutional Court, to review the ruling of the high court that orders the implementation of measures to guarantee the right to peaceful protest, has caused a stir in the country’s political sphere.
The ruling of the Civil Cassation Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice of Colombia is addressed to President Iván Duque, the Ministers of Defense and Interior, the Mayor of Bogotá, the Public Ministry, the Director General of the National Police, the Ombudsman’s Office People and the Office of the Attorney General of the Nation.
LOOK: Supreme Court of Colombia asks to suspend use of Esmad shotguns; orders Defense Minister to apologize for excessive use of force in November 2019 protests
Opinions divided on the court’s decision on the protests
The attorney general of Colombia, Fernando Carrillo, assured in a video published on his Twitter account this Wednesday that the decisions of the Justice must be respected and complied with even if they are not shared because that is the basis of a Democratic State of Law.
The official added that “otherwise, the public authority may be in contempt.”
The mayor of Bogotá, Claudia López, also spoke on Wednesday about the Court’s order and mentioned the need for a justice reform.
“What needs to be reviewed is the denial of systematic police abuse, its impunity and the need for reform. If you were ordered to do this for what happened last year where Dylan Cruz died, what would you be ordered for the 10 deaths and 75 injuries on September 9/10? Comply and correct now! ”López wrote on his Twitter account.
For their part, members of the opposition rejected the government’s position. The representative to the House of Representatives Ángela María Robledo published on her Twitter account this Wednesday that failure to comply with the ruling represents “a new slap in the face of this dictatorial government to the institutionality.”
Likewise, the congressman from the Alianza Verde Party, Mauricio Toro, tweeted that “denying the excesses of force, delegitimizing judges and stigmatizing peaceful social protest is pure dictatorship behavior.”
The president refers to the decision
In an interview with the Colombian television station RCN this Wednesday, President Iván Duque referred to the ruling of the Civil Cassation Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice.
“The Public Force never attacks or attacks or limits the peaceful expressions of citizens by constitutional mandate and by legal mandate,” said the president.
Faced with one of the points of the Court document in which it obliges the suspension of the use of the 12-gauge shotgun by the Mobile Anti-Riot Squads (Esmad) of the National Police, Duque assured that for several months this has not been used type of weapon while doing a review on the protocols and the operation of the same.
The defense minister must apologize
The Court also ordered the Minister of Defense of Colombia, Carlos Holmes Trujillo, to apologize “for the excesses registered since the mobilization of November 21, 2019.”
However, after two television interventions this Wednesday, the official has not yet offered an apology, and on the contrary, he affirmed that the public force does not institutionally incur excesses and in the cases that occurred since November 21, 2019, in those that “could exist excess”, correspond to individual performances of some of its members.
Carlos Holmes Trujillo indicated that this type of behavior is subject to criminal and disciplinary investigations by the competent authorities.
Among other actions, the Civil Cassation Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice ordered “the neutrality of the national government” including the “non-stigmatization of those who protest” as well as the formation of a “work table” to restructure the use of force in mobilizations.
