Office of the Attorney General of Colombia

Office of the Attorney General

Fiscalía General de la Nación
Agency overview
Formed	July 6, 1991
Headquarters	Diagonal 22B 52-01 (Ciudad Salitre), Bogotá, Colombia
Annual budget	COP$1,437,526,644,588 (est. 2010)[1]
Agency executives	Eduardo Montealegre Lynett, Attorney General José Ricardo González Esguerra, Deputy Attorney General
Child agency	National Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences
Website	www.fiscalia.gov.co

The Office of the Attorney General of Colombia (Spanish: Fiscalía General de la Nación; literally "General Prosecutorial Office of the Nation") 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.^[2] 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 Eduaro Montealegre Lynett.

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 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

Order	Name	Years in Office
1st	Gustavo de Greiff Restrepo	1 April 1992 – 17 August 1994
2nd	Alfonso Valdivieso Sarmiento	18 August 1994 – 8 May 1997
3rd	Alfonso Gómez Méndez	3 July 1997 – 3 July 2001
4th	Luis Camilo Osorio Isaza	1 August 2001 – 1 August 2005
5th	Mario Germán Iguarán Arana	1 August 2005 – 1 August 2009
6th ad interim	Guillermo Mendoza Diago	1 August 2009 – 12 January 2011
7th	Viviane Morales Hoyos	12 January 2011 – 6 March 2012
8th	Martha Lucía Zamora Ávila	6 March 2012 – 29 March 2012
9th ad interim	Eduardo Montealegre Lynett	29 March 2012 – present

Deputy Attorney General

The Deputy Attorney General (Vicefiscal 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.^[3] 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.^[4]

References

1. Ley de Presupuesto General de la Nación 2010 (PDF), Ministry of Finance and Public Credit, 2010, pp. 50–51, retrieved 2010-11-23
2. "Identidad Corporativa" (in Spanish). Office of the Attorney General of Colombia. Retrieved 2008-11-29.
3. "Despacho del Vicefiscal" (in Spanish). Office of the Attorney General of Colombia. Retrieved 2009-12-11.
4. "Colombia: Attorney General Undermines Human Rights Investigations". Human Rights Watch. 2002-10-07. Retrieved 2008-11-29.

Coordinates: 4°38′20″N 74°5′58″W / 4.63889°N 74.09944°W