Last Thursday, the Constitutional Court officially notified that it was overturning the economic emergency decreed by the Petro government in December 2025, for not finding a supervening fact to support it. And now, EL TIEMPO learned for the first time that the high court is already evaluating whether to suspend the effects of a key article, this time linked to the winter emergency decreed in February of this year.
Although it is a single article of one of the decrees that were issued In the shadow of that emergency, it not only addresses a key point but could also open the door for other measures to be suspended.
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Article 12
A new reaction from the president on article 12 is expected. Photo:ARCHIVE
Knowledgeable sources told EL TIEMPO that, in effect, a document is already circulating in which the provisional suspension of article 12 of Decree 175 of February 24, 2026 is proposed.
The decree refers to the adoption of extraordinary measures for financing, credit and liability relief to reactivate the agricultural sector in the face of the winter emergency. in Córdoba, Antioquia, La Guajira, Sucre, Bolívar, Cesar, Magdalena and Chocó.
And the article subject to constitutional study (12) talks about the direct contracting that the Petro government can carry out to acquire goods, services and logistics.
EL TIEMPO learned about the Executive’s arguments to keep this decree alive, and apart from the presentation in which the arguments that would lead to its suspension are presented.
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Hiring, by hand
In this decree there is article 12 on contracting. Photo:THE TIME
The first note made about the article – called ‘Exceptional contracting measures’ – is that There is no list of public entities that can use this mechanism and, furthermore, the contracts would have no limit on their addition.
In this regard, the legal secretary of the Presidency told the Court that Adding the contracts is essential because a new contracting process, with its stages and deadlines, would have delayed the delivery of vital aid, aggravating the economic situation of thousands of producer families.
Now, what the Court is going to define is what is the legal link between the economic crisis and the need for direct hiring. Also, why the prohibition on additions and percentages established in the law should be omitted.
Likewise, we will begin to analyze what ordinary measures there are to acquire those goods, services and logistics and why they were not enough.
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Preliminary conclusions
The magistrates of the Constitutional Court. Photo:Constitutional Court
And although the Government let people know the Court that there is a direct link between the winter crisis and the need for direct hiring, the preliminary conclusions of the presentation that is circulating – from the office of Judge Paola Andrea Meneses – would go in another direction.
In fact, the same sources indicated that what is being proposed is that the measures indicated in article 12 They may well be served through existing infrastructure and entities.
Furthermore, the flexibility of the contracting rules that are being decreed would not be justified. And, not to be suspended Article 12 could have serious effects on public assets.
The The Court will analyze these arguments and vote in the coming days. In the case of the emergency that fell (the one in December) the vote was 6 to 2. But with the issue of the winter emergency it is believed that the pulse will be tighter.
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