Colombian court orders house arrest of President Ivan Duque but he says he won’t comply

A court in Colombia has ordered President Ivan Duque to be fined and placed under house arrest for five days, it said on Saturday, citing the Andean country’s leader failure to comply with a previous ruling that demanded he provide environmental protection for a national park.

Although a court has ordered house arrest of Colombia President Ivan Duque, there is little likelihood the sentence will be carried out.

Experts say the order by the court in Ibague, the capital city of Colombia’s Tolima province, has no chance of being carried out. Colombia’s president can only be accused and investigated by a special legislative commission, and can only be tried by the country’s congress.

Duque was found to be in contempt of court for failing to enact measures to protect the Los Nevados national park as ordered by Colombia’s Supreme Court in 2020, the superior court of Ibague said in a statement explaining its ruling. Environmentalists claim the government has done little to stop illegal mining and logging the park, which includes three of the country’s tallest peaks

The court also imposed a fine on the president of roughly $4,000 and ordered that he create a special unit of police or military members to help carry out conservation protection and remedial work at the park.

The president insisted his government has protected Colombia’s natural parks and complied with the court order to conserve the Los Nevados national park.

“We’ve seen an inexplicable initial ruling,” Duque said in a video shared on social media, calling the court decision unconstitutional and insisting that the Supreme Court’s order had already been carried out.

Evidence demonstrating Duque’s compliance with the Supreme Court’s order was sent to the court in Ibague but was ignored, Justice Minister Wilson Ruiz said in a video statement sent to journalists.

The Ibague court based it charges against Duque on a Colombian law guaranteeing protection to nature.