Office of the Attorney General of Colombia


The Office of the Attorney General of Colombia is the Colombian institution part of the Colombian judicial branch of Government with administrative autonomy designed to prosecute offenders, investigate crimes, review judicial processes and accuse penal law infractions against judges and courts of justice. The Office of the Attorney General was created by the Colombian Constitution of 1991 and began operating on July 1, 1992. The current Attorney General is Fernando Carrillo.
An investigative process is initiated either by the institutions' own initiative or after a denouncer has made authorities aware of the case in a police station or in a Quick Reaction Unit of the Attorney General's Office.

The Attorney General

Election process

The Attorney General is elected by Colombian Supreme Court out of a :wikt:ternary|ternary presented by the President for a period of four years. To cast the final vote, the Supreme Court of Justice must meet a quorum of 16 out of the possible 23 votes, i.e. two thirds of the votes.

List of Attorneys General

OrderNameYears in Office
1stGustavo de Greiff Restrepo1 April 1992 - 17 August 1994
2ndAlfonso Valdivieso Sarmiento18 August 1994 - 8 May 1997
3rdAlfonso Gómez Méndez3 July 1997 - 3 July 2001
4thLuis Camilo Osorio Isaza1 August 2001 - 1 August 2005
5thMario Germán Iguarán Arana1 August 2005 - 1 August 2009
6th ad interimGuillermo Mendoza Diago1 August 2009 - 12 January 2011
7thViviane Morales Hoyos12 January 2011 - 6 March 2012
8thMartha Lucía Zamora Ávila6 March 2012 - 29 March 2012
9thEduardo Montealegre Lynett29 March 2012 - 28 March 2016
10th ad interimJorge Fernando Perdomo29 March 2016 - 1 August 2016
11thNéstor Humberto Martínez1 August 2016 - 15 May 2019
12thFernando Carrillo Flórez16 January 2017 - present

Deputy Attorney General

The Deputy Attorney General is the second-in-command to the Attorney General and is appointed by the Attorney General to represent him before the different entities of the State and society, and replaces him in his absence. The Deputy Attorney General assists in formulating policies regarding the entity and ensures their compliance. He coordinates international technical assistance programs and presents update reports to the Attorney General. The current Deputy Attorney General is José Ricardo González Esguerra, who was appointed by Martha Lucía Zamora Ávila in January 2012.
In 2009, after the end of Attorney General Iguarán's term, the Deputy Attorney General, Guillermo Mendoza Diago, took over interimly as Attorney General until January 2011 because the Supreme Court struggled to select Iguarán's successor.

Controversies

Former Attorney General Luis Camilo Osorio, whose four-year term ran from 2001 to 2005, was criticized by Human Rights Watch. They accused him of undermining investigations into human rights violations by retiring or forcing the resignation of several investigators.