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A ruling that is considered “unprecedented” has opened a new political and judicial discussion in Colombia.
The Superior Court of the Judicial District of Ibagué, a city in the west of the country, issued a house arrest warrant against the president Ivan Dukewho is accused of flouting a court decision that in 2020 ordered him to protect a nature reserve.
The ruling, published this Saturday by local media, orders the president to remain in his residence for five days and, in addition, pay a fine of 15 monthly minimum wages (almost US$4,000).
Duque allegedly did not comply with a sentence issued by the Supreme Court of Justicewhich declared as “subject of rights” to the Los Nevados National Natural Parklocated in the central coffee region of the Colombian Andes.
The ruling established that the president is the legal representative of this area, so it fell to him to create a group for its preservation.
Duque, who was in the department of Córdoba this Saturday, has said that his administration complied with the ruling of the Supreme Court. But, in addition, he alleges that the house arrest warrant is “unconstitutional”.
image source, Getty Images
“Today we have seen an act that, first, is inexplicable, because it wants to go beyond the constitutional jurisdiction, in which the arrest of the president of the republic is supposedly ordered for allegedly not complying with that sentence. That sentence is more than served and the reports are,” he said in statements collected by the newspaper Time.
Duque also cataloged the judicial order as a “policy” of an “arbitrary” nature, and urged the Judicial Disciplinary Council of his country to take action.
Experts quoted by the Colombian press point out that the president is protected by constitutional jurisdiction, so it is unlikely that he will comply with the arrest. Likewise, in Colombia the power to jimpeaching the president rests with the legislature.
The arrest warrant comes just two weeks before the celebration of the second round of the presidential election, on June 19.
Duque cannot participate in this electoral process because in Colombia re-election to the highest position in the country is prohibited.
The sentence of the Supreme Court
The Duque government had one year to implement a plan for the conservation of Los Nevados National Natural Park.
The court considered this natural habitat one “subject to the rights of life, health and environment”.
In addition to the president, the order had to be complied with by the agency that directs the country’s natural parks, as well as the departments of Caldas, Quindío, Risaralda and Tolima.
Together they had to develop a plan to “recover, maintain and conserve the Nevados National Park.”
The president was also obliged to assign a police or military force to protect the area.
The presidency says, according to the newspaper Timethat his government assigned a “delegate” to comply with the sentence of the Supreme Court.
And also that work tables have been held “in the capitals of the departments related to compliance with the ruling, in the protected area and that a follow-up matrix was even drawn up.”
The reserve
The park, located between several departments in the center of the country, is made up of five snow-capped peaks: Ruiz, Tolima, Cisne, Santa Isabel and Quindío.
In the protected area, created in 1974, there are moorland and forest ecosystems, as well as three volcanoes.
It also has more than 100 micro-basins that supply aqueducts, lakes, lagoons, dams and groundwater, reported the EFE agency.
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