Why was Bogota's mayor sacked? Gustavo Petro was elected as Mayor of Bogotá in 2011, he assumed power on the 1st January 2012 and he implemented a number of notable policies. One of them was the nationalisation of Bogotá's waste collection system. His aim was to integrate the unpaid street rubbish collectors into the business and reduce the costs of waste collection; thus saving the district of Bogota a lot of money. Unfortunately this move affected the interests of some very powerful groups. He took the lucrative business (worth about 2.4 billion Colombian pesos) away from four big companies and handed it over to a state institution. These companies decided to make life difficult for Petro. They refused to collect any waste in the interim period and they sent all the rubbish trucks into garages for maintenance. This resulted in 3 days of chaos where no rubbish was collected in the city until Petro managed to find 700 trucks to replace them. Some people, like Emilio Tapia and Manuel Sánchez, claim that this was a deliberate plot to get Petro removed from office. They were both part of the criminal 'Contracting Cartel' of the previous Bogota administration and are now collaborating with a judicial investigation into the crimes. Tapia was in charge of the bids for the district waste disposal contracts and he claims that the companies had a specific aim when they refused to collect the rubbish: to create such a scandal that Petro would be removed from power. And this is exactly what happened. On the 9th of December the Inspector General's office dismissed Petro as Mayor and banned him from public office for 15 years. The reason: he had violated the principles of the free market and put people's health in danger when he nationalised the rubbish collection system. But, according to Tapia and Sánchez, Petro was not actually to blame and, even if he does bear responsibility, Petro has been banned for 15 years for what was essentially a mistake on his part. In stark contrast, the previous Mayor of Bogotá is currently in prison on corruption charges and the Inspector General's office only banned him from public office for one year. For these and other reasons thousands of people have taken to the streets of Bogotá to protest. Many believe that Petro's dismissal from office is more politically than legally motivated and the Attorney General's office is undertaking two investigations; one into the conspiracy claims of Tapia and Sánchez and the other to determine whether the punishment is indeed disproportionate. Who is behind the sacking? Alejandro Ordóñez, Colombia's Inspector General and the man who read out the decision against Mayor Petro, is a controversial figure. Some investigative journalists have denounced his re-election (in September 2012) as corrupt in both stages. Furthermore, after his questionable method of obtaining power, Ordóñez has been widely accused of using it for political objectives. Ordóñez fired former Senator Piedad Córdoba, and banned her from office for 18 years. Despite the fact that she was absolved in the criminal proceedings by the Supreme Court, Ordóñez ignored this decision and fired her anyway. His office also dismissed the former Mayor of Medellin, Alonso Salazar, and banned him from public office for 12 years. He was fired for denouncing one of the candidates to succeed him for holding meetings with members of illegal armed groups. His accusations have proved to be well founded but, nevertheless, the Inspector General considered that Salazar had participated in politics merely by making the accusations. Both of these dismissals have been denounced as political attacks against left-wing politicians. Some media sources have also criticised Ordóñez for hypocrisy. One of the reasons he fired Córdoba was because she criticised the Uribe government abroad but Ordóñez himself later travelled to Holland where he asked the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to be aware of the impunity which he believes will result from the peace negotiations in the Habana. This strong criticism of the peace process is regarded as a political move; an action that attacks Santos and supports the extreme right-wing political figures, like former President Alvaro Uribe, who opposes the peace process. What are the political interests? Inspector General Ordóñez is an ally of Uribe who is campaigning to be Senator with his party the 'Democratic Centre', which has also designated a candidate to run for President in May. The favourite person for Presidential candidate was initially former Vice-President Francisco Santos because he is the most well-known and popular of Uribe's men. However, Francisco is also the first cousin of President Juan Manuel Santos so the two running against each other would make Colombia look like a family-run business and furthermore it could cause public rejection of both the Santos cousins, allowing a left wing opponent to gain more support. Therefore, much to Francisco Santos' disappointment, Uribe's party chose the less well-known Ivan Zuluaga as Presidential candidate. This decision caused some ill-feeling among Francisco and his supporters so Uribe's Democratic Centre are trying to repare the damage and make the most of Francisco's political power. What better than to have him replace Gustavo Petro as Mayor of Bogota? One theory is that Ordóñez, Uribe and Francisco Santos all conspired to have Petro fired and there is at least one incident which backs up the theory. On the 14th of November, nearly a month before Petro was fired, Francisco Santos held a meeting where he tried to gain support for his bid for Mayor so many claim that he had insider information. He does not deny the meeting, but he claims that he was merely preparing for possible future scenarios. Whether or not there was a conspiracy, the Uribe sector will benefit from Petro's dismissal and Francisco will run for Mayor if the decision is implemented. What will happen next? After the Inspector General first announced the decision to fire him, about 800 of Petro's supporters presented 'writs for the protection of constitutional rights' (tutelas) to Bogotá's Administrative Tribunal. In what was described as a 'writathon' (tutelatón in Spanish) the supporters claimed that their rights to elect and be elected had been violated by the sacking. Surprisingly, on the 14th January, the day after Ordóñez had confirmed his decision, the Administrative Tribunal of Bogotá temporarily suspended it for 10 days while it decided the merits of the case. Since then, the judge who suspended the sacking has been accused of conflict of interest because his wife is a Bogota district civil servant, and both him and his wife have received death threats. 10 days later the Administrative Tribunal upheld 3 'tutelas' against the sacking of Petro, ruling that the exact cause of the risk to public health was not analysed. The Inspector General had used the Unique Disciplinary Code (UDC) to criticise Petro's public policy of nationalising waste disposal but not Petro's actual conduct. Since the UDC does not apply to public policy, the Tribunal ruled that Petro should not be fired. The Tribunal also stated that the only valid mechanism to judge public policy is through elections therefore the repeal elections called for the 2nd March should go ahead so that the citizens of Bogotá can decide whether to fire Petro or not. The Inspector General's office appealed this decision to the State Council which has 20 days to decide if Petro should be fired or not. This whole process is calling into question the power of the Inspector General's office. Afterall, it is an administrative body and not a judicial one. Therfore many argue that it should not be able to fire elected representatives and some have put the issue before the Constitutional Court which will make a ruling on it soon. The 2 possible scenarios for Petro So, if the State Council decides to uphold the Inspector General's appeal, Petro will have to leave office and his Progresistas party will present a list of candidates to the President who will have 10 days to choose one to become Mayor until elections can be organised. On the other hand, even if the State Council rules in his favour, Petro will still have to face the repeal elections called against him on the 2nd March. However the repeal will probably fail; either through not attracting enough voters or through a victory by Petro whose popular support his greatly risen since the whole scandal began. Indeed, following the news of a shortage of money to fund the elections, Petro offered a loan from the district coiffers; he is that confident of winning. The implications for the Colombian peace process The Farc are currently negotiating an end to the civil war with the Colombian state and they have already agreed the first two points on the agenda; the first about integral agrarian development and the second about their future participation in Colombian politics. Petro is the first ever demobilised guerrilla to reach such a high position of power through elections in Colombia and he has just been fired by a right-wing Inspector General for dubious reasons. Therefore many argue that if left-wing politicians are not murdered (28 members of the Patriotic March have been killed over the past few years in Colombia) then they have their careers destroyed judicially. The Farc have said that Petro's dismissal is "a serious blow" to the government's credibility. Who is next on Ordóñez's hit list? Ordóñez has already fired 3, very high profile, left-wing politicians and had them banned from public office: Piedad Córdoba, Alonso Salazar and Gustavo Petro. Next on his list appears to be the Democratic Pole Congressman Ivan Cepeda, for the following reasons. In 2011 Cepeda recorded an interview with the former paramilitary commander alias 'Alberto Guerrero' in the maximum security prison in Itagüí. In this interview Guerrero accuses the former President Alvaro Uribe, of forming a paramilitary group during his mandate as Governor of Antioquia (1995-1997), a paramilitary group which committed 2 massacres in Antioquia in 1996. Guerrero also said that another former paramilitary, called Juan Guillermo Monsalve, was a direct witness to these events so Cepeda decided to interview him as well. Monsalve is the son of an Uribe family butler and he is now in prison for his confessed crimes with the paramilitary group 'United Self-defence forces of Colombia' (AUC). In the interview Monsalve not only repeats Guerrero's accusations but he also accuses Uribe of ordering one of the 1996 massacres and of protecting drug traffickers while he was Governor. On the 1st August 2013 the Inspector General's office opened an investigation against Cepeda for 'abuse of his public position' and 'litigation fraud'; crimes supposedly committed when he interviewed the two former paramilitaries. Human Rights Watch has sent an open letter to Ordóñez claiming that the investigation against Cepeda is unjustified. Firstly, concerning the 'abuse of public function' charge, Cepeda is a member of the Congressional Human Rights Commission so carrying out interviews regarding human rights violations is one of his fundamental responsibilities. Secondly, concerning litigation fraud, HRW has not heard of any proof that Cepeda has supplied fraudulent testimony and the fact that the Attorney General's office has opened a judicial investigation based on Cepeda's interviews shows that they have validity. The wider response to the Petro affair The dismissal of Petro has provoked a huge amount of response, both on a local and international level. There have been at least 4 huge protest marches, members of the Indigenous Guard have travelled to Bogotá all the way from Cauca to support him and even the possible future US Ambassador to Colombia spoke out against the sacking. The Colombian media has been having a field day with the story. The national weekly magazine Semana printed a photo of Ordóñez with the title “Terminator”on its front page and one political satire cartoon showed Ordóñez as a hunter with the heads of Piedad Cordoba, Alonso Salazar and Gustavo Petro mounted on his wall. There has been a Vallenato song written about Petro and a hip-hop song which speaks out against Ordóñez. With a big announcement about the peace negotiations expected soon, politics is currently very interesting in Colombia.