Vivian Polanía Franco, Colombian judge investigated for her photos on Instagram: “Justice is more important than how Justice is seen” | The State
NEW YORK – When the judge’s father Heidy Viviana Polanía Franco He died, a victim of cancer, on December 26, 2013, the Colombian’s life collapsed.
His career in the Judiciary, which had begun in the juvenile resocialization centers of Bogota, was emerging rapidly.
But the loss of who she calls her “best friend”, whose teachings as a criminal prosecutor in the country continue to guide her steps, forced her to stop before redirecting the course of her profession.
“It was my turn to take time to heal. I hid for six months from everyone and started with the gym to get in shape. When I moved to Cúcuta it was the best news of my life, because I said: “I’m going to close a cycle.” Because it happened to me that I went to a restaurant and I remembered my dad. I needed to leave Bogotá. And the opportunity came up here in Cúcuta (…) ”, Polanía Franco recalled in an interview with The New York Journal.
The move in 2017 from the Colombian capital to the border city, marked by the migration of Venezuelans and violent crimes, was not only a labor transition but it would become the First Municipal Criminal Judge with Roaming Security Control FunctionsIt also meant a personal change that led her to a new recognition of her person.
It was in this period that the jurist discovered the liberating potential of the Crossfit.
Although, since she was a teenager, Polanía Franco has been inclined to sports (she practiced basketball and was a cheerleader), and attended the gym on a regular basis, it was when she arrived in Cúcuta that she “fell in love” with this high intensity training.
It was a good way to focus all the pain I have, he thought at the time.
Despite the fact that, currently, with the emergency of COVID-19, the regularity of her classes has decreased, and she spends more time in the improvised gym that she set up in her apartment, not a day goes by that Polania Franco skips her two-hour routines minimum to tone and enlarge certain parts of your body.
When he began to see the result of his effort and discipline, he was motivated to share images of physical progress on his social media accounts such as Instagram.
According to the 32-year-old Colombian, it is a kind of retribution for the sacrifice.
“I was a woman, skinny, but skinny, I was a bone. I am not envious and I have to admit it (…) I looked at those old women with those ‘legs’ here in Cúcuta, because they have great bodies (…) what do they do to be so pretty? Of course, they dedicate themselves ‘full’ to exercise. That is what has me in love with Cúcuta. Look, I have lived in many cities and Cúcuta is the only city where sports are practiced, it focuses on one sport and they are wild, tough, ”he describes.
Almost 200,000 fans on Instagram
At this time, more than 195,000 users follow her on her Instagram account, where she not only shares publications in which she shows her physical progress as a result of her rigorous exercise routine, but also questions and answers as part of the section on stories (stories), since, as he assured, he does not answer private messages.
When asked what he attributes his popularity to on the Internet, he answers: “I can’t explain myself.”
But what Polanía Franco says she does not know is revealed daily by dozens of fans in the comments. “What a beautiful judge” and “beautiful my doc” are just some of the messages that can be read in their images and videos on the net.
Although she may not want it, the beauty and the position she occupies seem to go hand in hand in the appreciation that her followers make of the character that she has developed with her publications, this without neglecting the freedom and irreverence with which she exposes her attributes and lifestyle when the toga is removed. Polania Franco does not hesitate to show her 37 tattoos; She wears labels like “Bunny” and it is not uncommon to see her wearing an elegant suit with a pair of tennis shoes or riding her Harley Davidson motorboat.
A photo of her marked abdomen changed everything
In fact, this second account in the photo application (the first was “hacked”) shot up in number of followers with a photo in which he is seen with a marked abdomen, as he confesses to us.
“The count begins to rise when I took a photo of my abdomen being marked. And the truth, after so much effort, because the truth is that no one imagines the effort to get to scratch the abdomen, one begins to take photos, and I was in a period that was not in the Judicial Branch. And then in that period I took advantage of a lot and I dedicated myself to the gym and they began to look for accounts from the United States. Promotions were not achieved due to time, because I already had to enter my position. But from there it all begins ”, explains the Colombian sitting at the desk in her home dressed in“ shorts ”and a T-shirt.
Polania Franco says that she welcomes the nicknames “sexy judge” and “hot judge” and that she does not see anything wrong with it.
“Besides, I’m not the one saying it,” she adds with a laugh.
“I have always been the same”
Asked if she is not afraid that they may doubt her seriousness as a judge because of what she publishes, she declares: “No, I have always been the same.” “I trust my work. I give everything in my work, 120% ”, he adds.
In passing, he questions those who think that “the habit makes the monk” or in this case, “the robe to the judge.”
“Working in Justice, one realizes that neither a gown nor a tie makes you a better or a worse person,” he reflects.
However, not all consider that the lawyer makes good use of her time in cyberspace even when she does not discuss or disseminate cases or judicial matters on the networks.
Disciplinary proceedings started against him for posts on Instagram
The discomfort of some due to the exposure on her Instagram profile, where she is also shown in lingerie and swimsuits, led to the start of a disciplinary investigation of the magistrates of the SDisciplinary Jurisdictional Wing of the Sectional Council of the Judiciary of Santander that allege that the judge compromises the administration of Justice and lacks the decorum that the exercise of her profession requires.
“I believe that the right to the development of free personality is absolute. That of one becoming what another person is, no. Is not my style. Those who know me know. I don’t walk in combos ”, the lawyer responds forcefully. “My limit is the limit of the rights of others. I mean, I can’t superimpose my rights over yours. That is very different and I would never do it, ”he clarifies.
“That is my personal account like Vivian, it is not an institutional account,” she continues. “I am never going to tell you about a process that I have, never. My reservation is absolute (…) And, well, whoever likes my photos, well cool. Anyone who likes to exercise, cool ”.
Although Polania Franco sometimes pauses to think about her answer as she shifts from side to side in her chair, she has no qualms about answering questions and defends her argument as if she were her own lawyer.
He finds out about research from his followers
The Bogota woman assured that she decided to grant interviews for the Vicky Dávila in Semana, CNN and now El Diario de NY because the magistrates who examine their behavior violated the privacy protocol that applies to cases of investigations against judges.
“I was not notified, I found out because I received messages from my followers on Instagram”, highlights the gown. “You broke the reservation, so now I go out to defend myself, because you were the ones who broke the law, I wasn’t. I have the right to debate my free development of personality ”, he insists.
She also questioned the lack of clarity about the approach to the disciplinary process, since, according to her argument, she does not even know if the procedure is due to her publications on networks, the products that she never sponsored from her page or the lawyer’s complaint Marlon diaz.
Threats from third parties for your publications on networks
The Colombian denounced that, before the investigations against her were publicly disclosed, she had already received threats from third parties; But at this time, five months after the start of the investigation, he says he does not know the status of the investigation.
“Why do you, instead of doing Crossfit, who looks like a child doing Crossfit with those weights, do yoga?” They would have told him on behalf of his superiors.
In the opinion of the interviewee, some of her superiors do not understand her tastes and hobbies because they are from different generations.
“I used to say to them:‘ Doctors, we are from different generations. I mean, understand me, I’m a brat, I’m 32 years old. ‘ I can put on the toga and I’m serious. The problem is that, my colleagues are from a different generation. In other words, I believe that I am the youngest judge in Colombia in the career ”, he says. “I’ve always been very homely, but that doesn’t take away my youth.”
Controversial video about altercation with lawyer Marlon Díaz
The strength with which he defends his positions also characterizes his execution at the time of conducting the judicial hearings, which has earned him criticism from some lawyers such as Díaz, who also presented a complaint against him for the way in which he proceeded verbally against him in a hearing for money laundering.
In the video of the alleged mistreatment that was popularized in networks, Polania Franco is heard asking the lawyer to be specific on his point, while the questioned asks for more time to present his argument.
Regarding the public outcome of the incident of August 31, the judge considers it a “show” to delay the judicial processes in the case.
“Because of all the‘ show ’that he did, the folder obviously spread over time, and, unfortunately, and I say unfortunately as a citizen, these people have not been brought to trial; but they are free after several judges in finalized decisions had analyzed the reasonable difference of those people in that conduct, “she details while insisting that she was not rude.
“I have never had a problem with a colleague, in my life, in my life. In other words, I have been in the Judicial Branch for 15 years, and I think that the arrogant one, unfortunately, is him, who thought that how a recognized lawyer is in Colombia, then he could do that type of action, “he says.
The judge, who attends preliminary hearings in all types of cases with special attention to those related to criminal groups such as the FARC, the “Clan del Golfo”, “Pelusos” and “La Línea”, among others, also defends her procedure with the argument that the court is not there to delay the processes but to decongest the system.
Polania Franco also questions that Diaz did not take action for the verbal exchange until an article about his lifestyle appeared outside the court in La Opinion de Cúcuta and Q’Hubo.
“That is gaining fame at the expense of others,” says the judge. “If he disagreed with my decision, about a month passed. For that there is an appeal… What they did was take advantage of the article by a journalist who has also known me for many years. He had asked me for an interview for that media a long time ago, a long time ago ”, he explains.
15 of his 32 years in the Judiciary
And it is that Polanía Franco not only breaks with the mold in social networks, her work route until she reaches Cúcuta is not common.
15 of his 32 years or half of his life has been spent in court, where he began working after graduating from the Universidad Católica de Bogotá and obtain a specialty in Constitutional Law at the Universidad del Rosario.
When he was still studying the specialization, he entered the Criminal Chamber of the Superior Court of Bogotá, and from there, he went on to occupy the position of senior officer in the 24th Municipal Criminal Court with functions of guarantee control.
Later, she was promoted to the secretary of that judicial office.
Before moving to Cúcuta, she was also an assistant to several capital magistrates and an advisor to the disciplinary chamber of the Sectional Council of the Judiciary of the demarcation.
Ask your colleagues for maturity
When reflecting on her role as a judge, Polanía Franco considers: “I believe that Justice is more important than how Justice is seen.”
In passing, he asks his colleagues for “maturity” and tolerance for difference.
“Human beings must evolve. The fact that I say, for example, I do not share your life project, but I respect it. I don’t like your skirt, but that doesn’t mean I’m against you. I mean, we are different. The fact that it is not in a combo does not mean that we are against it. You have to be mature. I think that is the message I tell my colleagues: you have to be mature! ”, He repeats.
For the Colombian, there are really important issues affecting Colombia that her superiors should focus on rather than claiming the right to decide how far her skirt should go.
“All this time that they have wasted in all this they should dedicate to real work. In Colombia there are very serious problems of corruption and that everyone knows, which is undeniable, undeniable. It is a public fact. So I think there are problems, especially at this time with COVID, Justice must dedicate 100% to COVID, 100% to the criminal organizations that have us here (makes a gesture of grabbing the neck), 100% to the border, not to generate more hatred against Venezuelans, but to see what we can contribute; how we improve the Judicial Branch through virtual media. Those are questions that I think are more important at this time to discuss whether I have legs or not. That is sad ”, he points out.
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