The one thing that fascist administrations, both in the US and Colombia, still shouldn’t do is piss off the courts. The judiciary could give a fuck about the rest of us, but lay a finger on their power or salary and even a largely unchecked executive is bound to run into some confrontation.

Two Colombian courts have issued orders against right-wing terrorist President Alvaro Uribe and several government ministers and officials to be jailed for three days for failing to enforce a legal ruling that raised the wages of nearly 150 judicial employees. Around 30,000 officials are now on strike to demand higher wages. The ruling came after the staff had made a court appeal, arguing that the deadline for the president and government to act passed in February.

Unfortunately, the Supreme Court has overturned Uribe’s three-day prison sentence, ruling the regional court does not have jurisdiction over the chief executive. The court determined that the president can only be investigated by Congress and sanctioned by the Senate under the constitution.

This is merely one of the most recent clashes between the executive and judiciary branch. Judicial investigations into the involvement of paramilitary leaders with Uribe’s allies in Congress have led to constant intimidation of the judicial branch by President Uribe himself. The presidents of the Supreme Court, the Supreme Council, the Constitutional Court and the State Council met a UN delegate late last week to denounce what they have called “the threat to judicial independence” and “attacks of the executive branch”.

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