Pedro against Barbosa, the last attack between two irreconcilable enemies

90% of Colombians who haven't seen X – formerly Twitter – may still be unaware that Colombia is facing a serious political storm at this point. On social media, a dialectical battle has been going on in recent days questioning the country's constitutional order. The alleged plot was orchestrated by the prosecutor's office to remove President Gustavo Pedro from power, using his preferred communications channel, in a message published in multiple languages ​​- including Arabic. This isn't the first time the president has talked about a coup against him, but in this second chapter the divide between the executive and judicial branches has gone a step further.

Calls for de-escalation have multiplied in the past few hours, but the coming days will show whether the tension that has persisted since the first Left government came to power a year and a half ago or if there is an uneasy calm prevails. Recovered before the modern history of the country. There are two meetings that mark the Thursday week. On the one hand, the Supreme Court is meeting to elect a successor to current Attorney General Francisco Barbosa, whose term ends next Monday. On the other hand, the education union, backed by Pedro, has called for a rally in front of the court headquarters in Bogotá.

On January 25, the 23 judges who make up the judiciary tried to select a new lawyer from a short list already sent by the president. None of the three proposed women received enough votes, as 13 judges cast blank votes, creating a new rift between Pedro and the company. The apparent feud between the president and Barbosa, appointed by former president Ivan Duke, dates back to the last election campaign and has not stopped escalating. Positioned in two opposing ideological leanings, the lawyer has attacked the government on several occasions in the form of protests that have contributed to the blurring of the boundaries of separation of powers.

Pedro, for his part, has always responded by fighting what he sees as the prosecutor's office operating outside the law. He and Barbosa have tried to defuse the situation on several occasions in recent months, but the animosity between them outweighs their desire to show institutional balance. In recent days, the conflict spiraled out of control when Barboza was already heading for the exit door. Pedro considers the prosecutor's office to investigate the 500 million pesos contribution from the teachers' union to the historic contract campaign – in the context of the Attorney General's office's decision to suspend President Alvaro Leyva for three months – for declaring the passport tender invalid. The intention to seize power in 2022 is hidden. A plan orchestrated by the attorney general's office, aided by a former Duke minister-led attorney's office, to erase it from the map.

A constant complaint of the president has been the idea that the conservative elites who have always held power in Colombia want to end it. For many analysts, this is a strategy to present himself as a victim in front of some political developments of the transitional government, but in any case, the president has not fallen short of the example. In 2013, when he was Mayor of Bogotá, Pedro was deposed by a court decision and thanks to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) who agreed with him. Years later, an Inter-American court condemned the Colombian government for violating its political rights.

That fact, which contributed to strengthening his image as a left-wing leader, remained in his memory. His guerrilla past and his absconding and years in prison earned him decades of rejection by the ruling class, which never took his presidential aspirations seriously. However, his victory in 2022 ended that opposition in one fell swoop. Pedro came to the presidency on an enormous wave of confidence in much of the country, which led to the inclusion of moderate sectors and sectors of liberal and social democratic origins in his cabinet. Unexpected political capital disappeared within months. For some, the president's small waist is the reason for the diverse views on his government; to others, owing to certain political results of his decree; For Petro, change in some power sectors is due to huge resistance.

For some reason, other or at the same time, the President sees the shadow of a conspiracy very closely. Pedro has given Leiva his full support during his temporary suspension. The president said Monday that he would abide by the decision of the attorney general's office when the president names his successor, which is not happening now. The Attorney General's Office has already spoken of “blatant contempt” on both sides that “attacks the rule of law, the Constitution and the law.” The case of the investigation into the teachers union's campaign contributions, in which Pedro finds a black hand behind it, is not new. The campaigns of his two predecessors, Duque and Juan Manuel Santos, were also investigated, but ultimately unsuccessful.

There have been few voices so far to respond to the international alarm initiated by the President. The same government issued a statement this Monday with the support of the European Left Party, which unites more than forty national left parties of various tendencies in Europe and whose headquarters is in Brussels, explaining the note they showed. It is deeply concerned by the actions of the Attorney General of Colombia, the Deputy Attorney General and the Attorney General of Colombia, who show apparent laxity on organized crime and instead continue to obstruct the actions of Colombia's democratically elected government. The Puebla Group, which brings together progressive Ibero-American leaders, also lent its support to the Colombian president.

As analyst Yolanda Ruiz explains, the court's appointment of a new attorney this Thursday could help smooth things over. Failing to do so, Assistant Prosecutor Martha Mancera of Barbosa's division will be placed in charge of the prosecutor's office on an interim basis. The outgoing lawyer himself hinted at his cards in recent reports. “The nation's deputy attorney general has the full support of the United States and the Department of Justice. Precisely, within the conversation we had, they are very quiet. “He is in a very good position if the Supreme Court takes more time,” he said of the selection of his successor.

The next chapters of this battle can be followed by the account of President X, 10% of Colombians who use the social network. Barbosa doesn't have a profile there yet, although Pedro thought he found him last weekend. Amid a flurry of mutual accusations, the president clashed with a false account in the name of the lawyer who turned Colombia's latest political fire into a viral hit.

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