Colombia: Constitutional Court Revives Peace Seats

The political controversy reached the high court through a tutela action filed by Senator Roy Barreras.

By ruling on a tutela action filed by Senator Roy Leonardo Barreras Montealegre against the Board of Directors of the Senate of the Republic, the Constitutional Court gave the green light for the reactivation of the 16 seats for victims.

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The controversy of a political nature reached the High Court through a tutela action filed by the senator after, in 2017, in the Congress of the Republic, the bill that had as an initiative that the victims of the conflict would have a voice and vote in the legislature was sunk.

In the first instance, the Administrative Court of Cundinamarca denied the claims of the legal action.

"It corrects the injustice that for many meant that in Congress there were seats for the perpetrators, but not for the victims," said Barreras, indirectly alluding to the fact that the peace agreement reserved 10 seats in the two chambers for demobilized members of the FARC guerrillas.

The "Constitutional Court did justice to the victims of the conflict, especially to the victims of the 170 PDET (Program for Development with a Territorial Approach) municipalities, the areas most affected by the armed confrontation in Colombia", considered former Minister of the Interior Juan Fernando Cristo.

"It was ratified that Congress did have enough votes to approve the initiative. From now on, from 2022 to 2030, these municipalities, where more than six million victims live, will have a voice in Congress to defend their interests and demand compliance with the Peace Agreement," added Cristo.