Colombia names new attorney general after political tensions

By Luis Jaime Acosta

BOGOTA (Reuters) – Colombia’s Supreme Court of Justice on Tuesday chose Luz Adriana Camargo as the country’s new attorney general, following weeks of political tensions over delays in naming someone for the role.

Camargo, a former judge who worked for the attorney general’s office for 12 years in the 1990s and early 2000s, was also an assigned prosecutor at the Supreme Court of Justice, where she investigated ties between lawmakers and right-wing paramilitary groups.

Delays by the court in naming a replacement for Francisco Barbosa, whose term ended in February, has caused tensions with leftist President Gustavo Petro, who said it was a rupture in institutional practice and denounced attempts to remove him from power.

Both the United Nations and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights asked for a swift process without pressure on the court.