A legal action has been filed in the country’s capital that directly challenges the economic emergency decree issued by the national government. The Democratic Center Party presented a protective action to stop the effects of the decree by which President Gustavo Petro declared a state of economic and social emergency for 30 days.
The guardianship was requested by Senator Paloma Valencia in her capacity as congresswoman and presidential candidate of the group and by the leader of the party, Gabriel Jaime Vallejo, as a citizen.
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The appeal was directed against the presidential decree and against the bodies responsible for its drafting and implementation, including the Office of the President of the Republic, the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit, and the National Tax and Customs Directorate (Dian).
According to the document presented to a judge of the Bogotá district, the main request is to immediately suspend the effect of the decree while the Constitutional Court exercises the automatic control of constitutionality that the Political Charter prescribes for this type of exceptional decisions.
The text noted that the court’s judicial vacancy creates a temporary control vacuum, which, according to the plaintiffs, justifies the intervention of the guardianship judge.
The lawsuit warns that allowing the decree to apply during this period “would mean depriving the effective judicial protection of fundamental rights of its content and tolerating a strategic use of the exceptional power to circumvent the controls inherent in the constitutional rule of law.”
The party led by former President Álvaro Uribe stated that the decree came into force immediately and allowed the executive to issue decrees with the force of law, including those of a tax nature. According to the guardianship, this authorization temporarily displaced Congress’s constitutional authority to create or amend taxes at a time near the end of the fiscal year.
In the events described, it was recalled that the Congress of the Republic put on hold the government’s tax reform on December 9, 2025, after denying the positive presentation in the joint economic commissions; This background was cited as an element before the declaration of economic emergency, a situation accepted by the government.
In this way, the appeal alleges that the government justified the state of emergency by citing a financial crisis linked to the budget deficit, rigid spending and low tax revenue. However, the plaintiffs pointed out that these factors were not new or unforeseeable events, which is a constitutional requirement for declaring a state of emergency.
The guardianship also requested that the judge order the Ministry of Finance and the Dian to refrain from imposing, collecting or demanding new taxes resulting from the decree while its constitutionality is established. According to the document, this measure is intended to avoid irreversible impacts on taxpayers.
In the statement accompanying the lawsuit, the party stated that “the development of the decree without judicial control represents a serious threat to the fundamental rights of citizens,” a sentence that remained one of the focal points of the argument.
It should be noted that The decree in question granted the government the authority to impose special taxes to collect up to $41,000 million (equivalent to 155,000 million pesos). to meet the budget needs expected for 2026. This point was also mentioned as part of the key elements motivating the Democratic Center’s actions.
The lawsuit filed by the party joins other petitions filed with the Constitutional Court by congressmen Angélica Lozano and Cathy Juvinao, both from the Green Party, requesting the suspension of the same decree. The final decision now lies in the hands of the judge, who takes knowledge of the guardianship and the higher court as soon as it fully resumes its functions.
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