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Nearly 200,000 have petitioned to remove Colombia’s newly named ambassador to the Organization of American States (OAS) saying he is guilty of nepotism and ignoring the rule of law while president of Colombia’s State Council and as attorney general (2009-2016).
As of Wednesday afternoon 195,000 people of the necessary 200,000, had signed a Change.org petition calling for Colombian President Ivan Duque to remove Alejandro Ordoñez from his newly-appointed post as the OAS ambassador.
Caribe Afirmativo (Positive Caribbean), a gender equity and LGBTQI rights organization initiated the petition on August 25, a day after Duque assigned Ordoñez to the job, accusing Ordoñez of: "Using his power as a prosecutor to do precisely the opposite of his directed mandate: attacking human rights, in particular minorities and victims" of the country’s six decades civil conflict.
The human rights organization says Ordoñez, "ignored the rule of law and used his disciplinary power to dissuade public officials from complying with their constitutional and legal obligations."
The organization listed 10 points as to why the OAS ambassador should be removed, which includes Ordeñez's history of burning books, insisting that women are servants to men and "men to the State and the State to God." Caribe Afirmativo also says that Ordoñez has compared homosexuality and abortion to bestiality and pedophilia.
Former presidential candidate Gustavo Petro tweeted of the appointment: "Duque has named a fascist, homophobic, anti-semite as our OAS ambassador. There (Ordoñez) will have to defend the Colombian nation of its human rights violations within the IACHR (Inter-American Commission on Human Rights) the same one that he himself doesn’t accept." The new ambassador once said Petro was an "assassin" who hadn't paid for his crimes.
Ordoñez also once said he doesn’t acknowledge the IACHR and other international human rights bodies because according to the state official, "the only way to guarantee human rights is to defend the rights of God in society."
The petition also reads that the former attorney general voted ‘No’ against Colombia’s hard-won peace accords and a land law meant to return territories to victims of the armed conflict.
Caribe Afirmativo sent their demand to both the president and the OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro.
The human rights org says Colombia loses legitimacy on the international stage by making Ordoñez the lead OAS liaison.
Prior to being sworn in on August 7, President Duque named Senator Nancy Patricia Gutierrez as his interior minister who was investigated by the Supreme Court for links to paramilitary groups in 2008. The head of state also just announced the Colombian government will remove itself from UNASUR in six months.
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