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Office of the Attorney General
Office of the Attorney General
Fiscalía General
	The “lynchpin” (Spanish: Pieza Clave).
Agency overview
Formed	July 6, 1991
Jurisdiction	Colombia
Headquarters	Diagonal 22B No. 52-01; (Ciudad Salitre),; Bogotá, D.C., Colombia
Agency executives	Guillemo Mendoza Diago, Attorney General; Fernando Pareja Reinemer, Deputy Attorney General
Child agency	National Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences
Website
	http://www.fiscalia.gov.co

Not to be confused with Inspector General of Colombia.

The Office of the Attorney General of Colombia (Spanish: Fiscalía General de 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^[1]. 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 of Colombia is Guillermo Mendoza Diago.

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.

[edit] The Attorney General

[edit] Functions

[edit] Requirements for office

[edit] 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.

[edit] List of Attorney Generals

Order	Name	Years in Office
1st	Gustavo de Greiff Restrepo	April 1, 1992 – August 17, 1994
2nd	Alfonso Valdivieso Sarmiento	August 18, 1994 – May 8, 1997
3rd	Alfonso Gómez Méndez	July 3, 1997 – July 3, 2001
4th	Luis Camilo Osorio	August 1, 2001 – July 31, 2005
5th	Mario Germán Iguarán Arana	August 1, 2005 – July 31, 2009
6th	Guillermo Mendoza Diago	August 1, 2009 – present

[edit] 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^[2]. The current attorney general, Mr. Mendoza Diago, is actually the Deputy acting in the absence of an Attorney General, this is because the legal term of Mr. Iguarán Arana ended on July 31, 2009 and the Supreme Court has not yet finished the seleccion and election process for the next Attorney General. Given the vacancy of the Deputy chair, the Supreme Court appointed Fernando Pareja Reinemer as Deputy Attorney General.

[edit] 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^[3].

[edit] References

^ "Identidad Corporativa" (in Spanish). Office of the Attorney General of Colombia. http://www.fiscalia.gov.co/pag/entidad/entidad.html. Retrieved 2008-11-29.
^ "Despacho del Vicefiscal" (in Spanish). Office of the Attorney General of Colombia. http://www.fiscalia.gov.co/pag/entidad/organig/paginas/vicefis.htm. Retrieved 2009-12-11.
^ "Colombia: Attorney General Undermines Human Rights Investigations". Human Rights Watch. 2002-10-07. http://www.hrw.org/press/2002/11/colombia1108.htm. Retrieved 2008-11-29.

[0] "Identidad Corporativa" (in Spanish). Office of the Attorney General of Colombia. http://www.fiscalia.gov.co/pag/entidad/entidad.html. Retrieved 2008-11-29.

[1] "Despacho del Vicefiscal" (in Spanish). Office of the Attorney General of Colombia. http://www.fiscalia.gov.co/pag/entidad/organig/paginas/vicefis.htm. Retrieved 2009-12-11.

[2] "Colombia: Attorney General Undermines Human Rights Investigations". Human Rights Watch. 2002-10-07. http://www.hrw.org/press/2002/11/colombia1108.htm. Retrieved 2008-11-29.

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