Vigencia Funcional del Ministerio Público en el Proceso Penal Colombiano, Análisis a Partir de su Evolución Histórica, Transición del Modelo Inquisitivo al Sistema Acusatorio y su Rol dentro del Proceso Penal

Abstract

This research unfolds in three stages. The first stage analyzes the evolution and transition from the inquisitorial to the adversarial system, examining how this change significantly impacted the Public Prosecutor's Office's limited functionality within the current adversarial system. To this end, its historical development and transformation over time, both in Colombia and in other legal systems, are precisely detailed. Based on this analysis, the fundamental rights and guarantees governing the criminal process are examined, with particular emphasis on the position of victims and society. In this context, the increasingly limited intervention of the Public Prosecutor's Office becomes evident. Thus, based on the study of the Public Prosecutor's Office's role within the Colombian adversarial criminal justice system, new strategies are proposed to strengthen the role of victims' lawyers and to create an institutional framework that effectively supports their work. Furthermore, mechanisms are proposed to support the judge's role, with the aim of establishing a clear and specific purpose that allows for the strengthening, even in the absence of the Public Prosecutor's Office, of those functions that are currently unprotected within the criminal process. The object of study proposed here lies in the exclusion of the Public Prosecutor's Office as an intervenor in the criminal process, through the structuring of a functional system that directly involves the other procedural actors, who, through a clear delimitation of functions, would assume those traditionally attributed to that body. It is argued that the participation of a third state actor breaks the so-called "equality of arms" and generates unnecessary bureaucratization of the system. From this perspective, its elimination would allow for the consolidation of a model in which the prosecution and the defense face each other in a truly balanced scenario, avoiding the duplication of functions and the confusion of roles that, in practice, end up slowing down the development of criminal proceedings.