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Weekly Report - 19 March 2015 (WR-15-11)

COLOMBIA: Corruption scandal has far-reaching repercussions

The constitutional court is embroiled in the biggest corruption scandal in its 24-year history. The president of Colombia’s top court, Jorge Ignacio Pretelt, took a 30-day leave of absence on 5 March at the behest of the other judges on the nine-member body. Only congress can hold senior officials from the executive and judicial branches of government to account but the record of the congressional accusations’ committee is so dismal it is tantamount to ensuring impunity. The timing of the latest incident is very awkward for the government of President Juan Manuel Santos. It is precisely this sort of scandal that provides ammunition for the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (Farc), which has long argued there is something rotten at the heart of Colombia’s state institutions. It also sheds a new light on guerrilla demands for impunity as part and parcel of any eventual peace accord.

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