Colombia’s former chief prosecutor will be new justice minister – Colombia News

Former Prosecutor General and former Constitutional Court magistrate Eduardo Montealegre said Thursday that he will become Colombia’s Justice Minister next week.

Montealegre was a magistrate at the Constitutional Court between 2001 and 2004, and was Prosecutor General between 2012 and 2016.

Over the past weeks, the jurist became one of President Gustavo Petro’s most important allies because of his legal defense of a referendum on labor reforms.

Montealegre was also accepted as one of the main alleged victims of former President Alvaro Uribe, who allegedly bribed witnesses to discredit witnesses and judicial workers accusing his family of having had ties to paramilitary groups.

While serving as chief prosecutor, Montealegre promoted criminal investigations into Uribe’s alleged role in two massacres and the assassination of a human rights defender in the second half of the 1990’s.

Around the same time, the famed jurist reopened investigations into the former President’s brother, Santiago Uribe, for his alleged role in the creation of a paramilitary group in the first half of the 1990’s.

Uribe is currently on trial for, among other things, allegations that the former president conspired with a jailed former prosecutor to smear Montealegre and discredit the investigations against the Uribe family.

Montealegre has long been supported by liberal forces in Colombia’s political system.

The Senate elected him Constitutional Court magistrate in large part because of support from the Liberal Party.

The Supreme Court elected Montealegre Prosecutor General from a shortlist that had been composed by former President Juan Manuel Santos.

The incoming justice minister replaces Angela Buitrago, who left the Petro administration over disagreements with the president over the government’s peace processes with illegal armed groups.