The president of Colombia, sentenced to five days of house arrest for not protecting the environment

The Superior Court of Ibague ordered the five-day house arrest of the Colombian president, Ivan Duke, for disobeying a court order to protect the Los Nevados National Natural Park, in the Eje Cafetero region. The sanction had been issued by the Labor Cassation Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice, which declared the Nevados National Natural Park as a subject of rights in 2020. According to the ruling, published on Saturday by local media, the Government headed by Duque did not has complied with the creation of a Special Command of the Public Force to environmental crimes in that national park.

The court order imposed “house arrest for five days”, for whose fulfillment the director of the Colombian Police or the superior who attends the functions in the Palacio de Nariño, seat of the Executive, will be in charge. The high court also ordered a fine of fifteen monthly legal minimum wages in force to the Colombian head of state “unless compliance with the order considered to have been fulfilled is previously proven”.

In December 2020, the Supreme Court of Justice gave national, departmental and local authorities a peremptory period of one year to launch a joint plan for the recovery, maintenance, management and conservation of the Los Nevados National Natural Park, which it considered to be subject to the rights to life, health and the environment.

Decision “unconstitutional”

For his part, President Duque said that the decision of the Superior Court of Ibagué was a “prevarication” and that it went above and beyond the Constitution. “That sentence is more than fulfilled and the reports are there, but apart from that the decision is not only unconstitutional, it is not final, it is an open prevarication,” said the head of state in the Caribbean city of Montería, capital of the department of Cordova. The Colombian Constitution says that the was of the President of the Republic is absolute, and any action should be referred to the House Impeachment Committee, regardless of whether they are administrative or criminal matters.

Duque explained that they abide by judicial decisions because with their officials have been “working to comply with the protection of Los Nevados Park”. He requested that the Attorney General’s Office (Public Ministry) act so that “it is absolutely clear and it is possible to know what the true meaning of a political decision, without legal support“. He added that the Government will be ready to “respond to all calls but always within the constitutional order.”

five snowy peaks

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The park is made up of five snowy peaks: Ruiz, Tolima, Cisne, Santa Isabel and Quindío. It covers land in the departments of Caldas, Quindío, Risaralda and Tolima, in the center of the country. At the time, the Court ordered President Duque, Natural Parks and the departments of Caldas, Quindío, Risaralda and Tolima to prepare a joint plan to “recover, maintain and conserve the Nevados National Park.

In addition to hosting ecosystems of moors and high Andean forests, that are characterized by the presence of three snow-capped volcanoes that make it visible throughout the ecoregion of the Eje Cafetero, the park has a water potential represented as it has more than 100 micro-basins that supply aqueducts, and lakes, ponds, dams and groundwater.