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[Cambio] Why does your delegate to the Supreme Court of Justice request that Teodolindo Avendano be sentenced while you acquit the ministers to do with the case involving \"Yidipolitics?\" [REFERENCE to former congresswoman Yidis Medina accused of taking perquisites from government officials to support an amendment that favoured President Alvaro Uribe's reelection] [[Alejandro Ordonez]] The Attorney General's delegate to the Supreme Court, who I appointed and have known for several years, issued an opinion, which I was consulted on and fully share. There is no contradiction whatsoever between the ruling that acquitted the ministers and this concept, neither is it a change of position of the Office of the Attorney General. What the Court was investigating has to do with Teodolindo being awarded some notary public offices and does not include an analysis of the ministers behaviour. The Prosecutor's Office must resolve a possible accusation against them [the ministers] and what officials offered the perquisites. [Ordonez] That could happen but I still don't know. And if I condemn him, someone will surely say that my decision does not match my alleged political agenda. Some people forget that I fired Daniel Garcia when some people thought I had taken the post to \"reverse\" rulings. I have been consistent with the procedural reality by acquitting the ministers and request that Teodolindo be condemned. My rulings and decisions are not tied to any political agenda.

A year ago, mounds of rubbish piled up on street corners as a municipal agency struggled to implement a new waste-management system after Gustavo Petro, Bogota's left-wing mayor, allowed the contracts of private firms that had been providing the service to lapse. Faced with a public outcry, Petro called the private firms back. Since then, rubbish has been collected regularly. But those three days have cost Petro his job and his political future. On December 9th Colombia's inspector-general deposed the mayor and banned him from public office for 15 years for violating the principles of the free market and putting public health at risk. The inspector-general is a post unique to Colombia, charged with scrutinising public officials, including elected ones, and penalising them if they break the law. By common consent, Petro, a former guerrilla with an arrogant personality and an authoritarian streak, has not been a good mayor. But even his critics were shocked by his ousting. Petro claimed that his ouster was a coup against his \"progressive\" administration.

Weapons have given you independence. Laws will give you freedom. This pledge to Colombians by Francisco de Paula Santander, an independence leader, is inscribed above the portal of the Palace of Justice in Bogota. Ever since Santander, Colombia has been the most legalistic country in Latin America. Perhaps not coincidentally, it has also been one of the most lawless. Colombia is less lawless these days. And its legal tradition often stands it in good stead. But rather than freedom, legalism can sometimes bring arbitrary decisions and political headaches--as in the case of Gustavo Petro.

BOGOTÁ/EFE - La senadora opositora Piedad Córdoba denunció ante la Fiscalía colombiana por presunta prevaricación al Procurador General, Alejandro Ordóñez, quien formuló cargos contra ella por supuestos nexos con la guerrilla de las FARC y actos de \"traición a la patria\". La mediadora ante las Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC) sostiene que los cargos que le imputa la Procuraduría se sustentan en \"supuestas pruebas obtenidas ilícitamente\" de los ordenadores y otros dispositivos electrónicos decomisados en la operación militar en la que murió el portavoz internacional de la guerrilla, \"Raúl Reyes\", en 2008.