A person responsible for the La Guajira tank truck scandal accuses the presidents of the Senate and the Chamber of corruption

Sneyder Pinilla, one of the main people responsible for the corruption scandal in the purchase of tank trucks to bring water to the department of La Guajira, has accused the presidents of the Senate and the House of Representatives of Colombia this Friday morning of receiving multimillion-dollar bribes. to supposedly accelerate the processing of the Gustavo Petro Government’s reforms in Congress.

Pinilla, who was deputy director for disaster management of the National Disaster Risk Management Unit (UNGRD), reported in national media that he gave 3,000 million pesos (around $770,000) to Iván Name, president of the Senate , and 1,000 million pesos (about $260,000) to Andrés Calle, president of the House of Representatives. According to his testimony, the money would have come from cost overruns in the contract to purchase 40 tank trucks to bring drinking water to the communities of La Guajira, a case for which the Prosecutor’s Office is investigating him, as well as other UNGRD officials. including former director Olmedo López. The delivery of the resources would have occurred in the month of October 2023, before the regional elections.

In an interview with the Weekly magazine, Pinilla explained that one of the contractors gave him 4,000 million pesos to divide and send to the two parliamentarians. “They give the money to me in cash and I give it in cash to the person that Dr. Name sends, and I directly gave it to Dr. Calle.” The accused, who has already confessed his participation in the corruption network and seeks to collaborate with the Prosecutor’s Office to receive judicial benefits, affirms that he gave two suitcases with the money for Name to Sandra Ortiz, presidential advisor for the regions and partner of the president of the Legislature. in the Green Party. “She was the link for the issue that happened in the tank cars. She was a messenger. The president of the Senate had to be given 3,000 million pesos and she was the person to whom I made the delivery and I later accompanied her to a place in Bogotá to deliver the resource,” Pinilla said in the Coronell Report. in W radius.

In response to the accusations, Name has responded through a press release published on his , to receive as soon as possible the statement of Sneyder Augusto Pinilla Álvarez regarding the alleged facts that, through his attorney, he has stated that he knows in relation to me. As soon as I become aware of the content of your statements, I will proceed to file criminal complaints against you, if applicable.” Pinilla is expected to expand the complaints before the Prosecutor’s Office next Wednesday, May 8. Name, in any case, has been critical of the Government, to the point that some pro-government legislators have accused him of torpedoing the reforms presented by Petro.

Presidential advisor Sandra Ortiz defended herself through a message on actions to protect my honor and good name, which during so many years of private and public life has been built step by step with effort, honesty, transparency and love for the convictions of service and having a better country,” said the Government official. of Petro. And he added: “I regret that there is an attempt to judicially and politically instrumentalize the Attorney General’s Office through a principle of opportunity, trying with false accusations to divert attention from those truly involved in the events, and obtain benefits in their criminal proceedings, without leaving aside the interest of undermining the work that has been carried out by the National Government.”

Faced with the alleged delivery of the money to the ruling liberal Andrés Calle, Pinilla stated in Semana that he himself gave him a suitcase with bundles of bills of 50,000 and 100,000 pesos: “I make the delivery in Montería directly. He lives in the K62 building, in Montería, I will never forget that. I hand him over to him myself, his security scheme awaits me. “I get to an elevator, I go up to the apartment, and at the apartment I give him the money and I leave.”

The president of the Chamber, an ally of the Government and who has engaged in public disputes with Name over this, also responded in a statement: “I am convinced that the administration of justice is the cornerstone of the society we are building. For this reason, I offer my full support to promptly clarify the facts related to the alleged irregular purchase of some tank trucks in La Guajira,” said the Córdoba politician. ”Initially, I want to make it clear that I have not had any relationship with said contract, nor with any other similar activity, which is why I ask the authorities to act quickly in this matter, but at the same time with total objectivity so that no divert attention with unfounded incriminations.”

Until now, Pinilla has not explained who motivated him to pay the bribes, why he made them to the presidents of the two chambers, or how they supposedly affected the process of reforms such as the health reform (which collapsed in the Senate) or the pension reform ( that advanced in the Senate).

President Petro spoke on his X account: “I have been clear from the beginning of the campaign. Corruption is not tolerated in my government. Nobody is protected here. “An official who comes to steal, an official who leaves.” Furthermore, this Friday morning, in a statement from the Presidency, he reported the creation of a technical panel to evaluate cases of possible misuse of public resources. “The Presidency of the Republic reiterates zero tolerance for acts of corruption,” he says in the document. “In line with the conviction that no one can be above the law, the Government of Gustavo Petro announced a series of measures that have the objective of identifying, documenting and confronting any indication of corruption to subsequently facilitate the independent and effective action of the Attorney General’s Office.”

According to the Government, the technical table will be chaired by a specialized unit and will have the participation of the Presidency of the Republic, the Transparency Secretariat, the National Judicial Defense Agency and a group of external auditors specialized in the matter. “The Technical Table will establish close collaboration with the United States embassy in Colombia to strengthen international cooperation in the exchange of information. This alliance will focus especially on the identification of international capital derived from acts of corruption.”

Subscribe here to the EL PAÍS newsletter about Colombia and here to the channel on WhatsAppand receive all the information keys on current events in the country.