The inter-institutional coordination is the key piece to counteract the improper participation of public servants in politics during electoral times

The Attorney General, Francisco Barbosa Delgado, highlighted the importance of joint work with the Attorney General’s Office, the military forces, and the National Police to prevent the commission of electoral crimes.

During the seminar ” Limitaciones para la participación en política de los servidores públicos”, organized by Universidad del Rosario, the Attorney General, Francisco Barbosa Delgado, socialized the investigative strategy that was defined to identify and act judicially in the case of a possible participation of public servants in politics.

Currently, the Attorney General´s Office has a roadmap and the necessary criminal tools to intervene with respect to any conduct that puts at risk the free exercise of participating and voting.

The guidelines that govern the Prosecutor’s Office to combat electoral corruption were included in Directive 002 of 2022. Here, the inter-institutional work was included as one of the fundamental pillars. Promoting the coordination of prosecutors and investigators’ capacities with the Attorney General’s Office, the military forces, the National Police, the Financial Information and Analysis Unit (La Unidad de Información y Análisis Financiero UIAF in Spanish) and other entities to provide a timely and effective response to citizen complaints related to possible violations of their democratic rights.

Directive 002 of 2022 specifies that the UEI will address processes related to threats and homicides of members of the political party Los Comunes or members of the peace division. Meanwhile, the Delegate Office against Criminal Finances will be in charge of investigating the possible irregular financing of campaigns and contributions from criminal structures.

“We built an electoral risk map based on the presence of illegal actors, electoral fraud, criminal geography, illegal mining and illicit crops, violence against social leaders and the URIEL database of the Ministry of the Interior”, said the Attorney General when he highlighted the benefits of this mechanism that will allow the entity to know and understand the different electoral threats that arise in the country.

Currently, the electoral risk map of the Prosecutor’s Office indicates that 258 municipalities in the country have a high risk of electoral crimes and 526 have a medium risk. Departments such as Antioquia, Cauca, Nariño, Norte de Santander and Valle del Cauca are the most vulnerable to the criminal phenomena.

“We will have a Unified Command Post for the day of the elections, in which I will be verifying with our 35 sectional directors and all the national directors, around the country, monitoring what happens in the territories”, said the Attorney General Barbosa Delgado.

During the election day, the 23,000 public servants, including prosecutors and investigators, will be working in the 35 sectional Offices and more than 1,000 offices will be operating to guarantee the state presence in the territories and address citizens’ concerns.

“It has been my obsession in this Office of the Attorney General of the territories. A Prosecutor’s Office that has been focused on permanent work with people in different parts of the country. True peace is no other thing than moving to the territories and leading the State; that is peace and that is what we have been doing. Not only for this electoral process, but we have also been doing this for two years”, assured the Attorney General.

He concluded his speech by reaffirming that the constitutional duty of the Prosecutor’s Office is to carry out the investigation and the exercise of criminal action to any corner of the country and in the complex scenarios of the national reality in which democracy and the free and informed will of the voters are threatened.

When we speak, results follow.

The information contained in this press release corresponds to the narration of the objective news provided by the officials in charge of carrying out the criminal investigations within the Office of the Attorney General. By the time this communication is disclosed, the legal status of the people mentioned is still pending to be resolved by the competent judicial authority, always under the presumption of innocence contemplated by Article 29 of the Political Constitution and Article 7 of Law 906 of 2004.