Once upon a time, there was a country where prosecutors were respected and respectable people, and to become attorney general you had to have legal soundness, ethical strength and a résumé (not due to who knows what dreadful things) that inspired ascendancy, trust and credibility.
In that half-mythical, half-real country, being a prosecutor was an honour that required one to be dignified, to carry out one’s duties with one’s head held high, with a vocation to be a brain and not an appendage, and with the ability to make decisions of integrity that would not fit in anyone’s pocket or power.
Let us remember that the Attorney General’s Office was conceived by the 1991 Political Constitution as an independent body, with defined legal and constitutional functions. As an entity attached to the judicial branch, its main mission is to “provide citizens with a complete and effective administration of justice” and it must “investigate crimes and bring charges before judges and courts against alleged lawbreakers, either by ex officio or by complaint”. This is not an esoteric deduction. It’s on the prosecutor’s website; the same one that the prosecutor doesn’t practice.
That’s why I thought Juan Carlos Botero’s tweet was great: “Attorney General Francisco Barbosa is an example. An example of what an Attorney General should not be”.
It couldn’t be clearer.
As if the ineptitude demonstrated by the prosecutors on duty to end the impunity with which the material and “intellectual” (what an intellect!) murderers of 410 peace signatories and 1601 social leaders walk around with is not shameful enough, as if these disgraces were not enough, I mean, on top of everything else, Mr Barbosa has dedicated himself to grossly and abusively obstructing the actions of justice in the case against former president Álvaro Uribe, accused of bribing witnesses and committing procedural fraud. Two failed attempts at preclusion, the appointment of prosecutors who have to declare themselves impeded and others who resign on the most crucial day of all; extensions at convenience, 90 days that are recycled whenever they feel like it in the interests of the accused, and additional terms that are attributed whenever they feel like it. And speaking of winning… who wins? Disgrace, discredit, impunity.
The only thing that consoles one is that, during the turmoil, on the other side of the scale are Senator Iván Cepeda and a group of lawyers with integrity that is proof against injustice and despair. With years of evidence, testimonies, and documents, they have demonstrated ad nauseam that the prosecution has no choice but to present the long-awaited indictment against ex-President Uribe now, without further delays or stalling. The prescription of the case would be a slap in the face to the victims, to the truth, to what justice should be, and to the little confidence we have left in the institutions.
Two years of investigations in the special investigatory chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice, more than three years in the Attorney General’s Office, and solid evidence should be enough for the decision-makers to get out of their master’s pocket and act with integrity. Hopefully. Just as compasses are useless in polar regions, a country without a point of reference is lost.
Iván Cepeda and his lawyers have steered the ship of truth through the storm of infamy. Without straying from the law or losing patience shielded by certainty, they have been courageous and rigorous. They have not wielded hatred but arguments, because reason does not need to hate. Reason only needs justice to recognise it and act accordingly.
Article first published: El Espectador
