Hyper Presidentialism

Since 2006, the phenomenon of parapolitics in Colombia was uncovered. In September 2007 Mario Uribe Escobar, cousin of then president Álvaro Uribe Vélez, was summoned to answer for his possible links with paramilitaries in Sucre, where he had great political influence. President Uribe was also involved in scandals and complaints with the Supreme Court of Justice and some of its magistrates, for the case of his cousin and for alleged statements of 'Tasmania', a paramilitary key witness in the process of the investigation of paramilitarism and parapolitics, which involved the president with support to these groups. In the same direction, there were the attempts to reform the Justice system and the co-optation of the State Control Organs by the Executive, which were a consequence of the presidential reelection in 2006, to avoid that high officials of his government were investigated, judged and condemned for their links with the paramilitaries. This co-optation and persecution of the Supreme Court of Justice effectively configured a hyper-presidential institutionality in the country.