SEMANA learned that Inpec records contain four admissions of senator-elect Piedad Córdoba to jail. These were made on March 9, four days before the congressional elections; on March 17, four days following said elections, and on March 23 and March 24.
Only on the last visit was it reported that Piedad Córdoba was with her brother Álvaro Fredy Córdoba Ruiz, captured on February 3 for extradition for drug trafficking and who remains detained in La Picota, in Bogotá.
In one of the entries, Piedad Córdoba appears entering the La Picota management offices. In another two to the legal advice office.
The authorities are trying to confirm whether it is true that every time he entered, in addition to having seen his relative, he would have met several extraditables, to whom he would have allegedly offered not to be extradited if Gustavo Petro is elected president.
Some of the extraditables whom Córdoba would have visited, and who have her in the eye of the hurricane, would be José Leonardo Muñoz Martínez, alias Douglas, former head of the Office of Envigado; Francisco Javier Zuluaga, alias Gordolindo; Juan José Valencia, alias Andrea, in charge of the finances of the Clan del Golfo, and John Freddy Zapata, known as alias Messi, a member of the Clan del Golfo.
During the visit on March 9, Piedad Córdoba entered at 10:16 in the morning and left at 1:04 in the followingnoon. On March 17, the arrival was at 10:20 am and her departure was at 4:13 in the followingnoon. With whom was Piedad Córdoba meeting during those six hours?
On March 23, he arrived at the prison at 9:29 am and, following almost three hours, at 12:13 pm, he left. For his part, on March 24, his arrival at La Picota was practically at the closing of the prison entrance, at 3:33 pm That visit was very quick, only 33 minutes, since he left at 4: 06 p.m.
Piedad Córdoba’s admissions to La Picota prison date from September 15, 2009. From that date until today, a total of 25 visits by the congresswoman to prisons have been recorded, of which 21 went to La Picota and four to La Paz prison in Medellin.
Among the detainees he visited at that time were former paramilitaries such as José del Carmen Gelvez Albarracín, alias El Canoso (2011); Daniel Rendón Herrera, aka Don Mario (2011); Jorge Enrique Aguilar Rodríguez, alias Aguilar (2011); Hubert de Jesús Ballesteros Gómez, accused of having links with the Farc (2015), and also Jesús Santrich, in 2018.
In her 2022 records, the authorities have been struck by why, if she was not litigating, Piedad Córdoba entered prison as a lawyer.
Was it perhaps a way of evading control so that he might meet the inmate he wanted in the prison? This is not counting Piedad Córdoba’s visits in the past to former paramilitaries imprisoned in US prisons, and which were controversial because things were stated that, presumably, the ‘exparas’ did not say.
Petro canceled it
The presidential candidate Gustavo Petro, surprisingly, announced this Wednesday on his Twitter account that Piedad Córdoba was left out of his presidential campaign.
The candidate of the Historical Pact had already referred to Piedad Córdoba in the face of the accusations once morest the now-elected senator for her relationships not holy with the Venezuelan regime, Álex Saab and apparent multimillionaire businesses.
Petro had described as “serious indications” all the information regarding Piedad Córdoba and the investigations carried out once morest her by the Investigation Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice.
On another occasion, Petro had defended her, asking that Álex Char be investigated for the Aida Merlano scandal.
Piedad Córdoba remained in Petro’s campaign and was elected as senator of the Historical Pact, on March 13.
During the last months he was seen sharing the stage with Petro in the different manifestations of the candidate in various regions of the country. She has also been seen in the company of Petro’s vice-presidential running mate, Francia Márquez.
Today the country wonders why Petro’s decision. Are there recordings? Is it true that Petro received information from foreign agencies?
In any case, the presence of Piedad Córdoba in Petro’s campaign has been controversial from day one, although she had declared a few years ago that she would never vote for Petro because she called him a “bad human being.”
What is yet to be established is whether Piedad Córdoba went to jail to meet with those extraditable by her own decision or if she did it on behalf of the campaign, since Petro had said in 2021 that, if he becomes president, he would rethink the figure extradition to the United States.
“I would make a proposal. The whole issue of extradition must be made subject to peace. We must offer a policy of collective submission to justice for drug trafficking groups. Uribe himself made one, which was a political alliance with a group of drug traffickers, and it turned out very badly because when they began to tell the truth, he extradited them. It cannot be a negotiation with the government, as Uribe did. I explain: an extradition process must have two phases. The first, if the drug trafficker and his organization hand over everything, tell the truth and submit to justice, they must spend their sentences in Colombia. If a drug dealer cheats, then he should be extradited. But that extradition cannot be like today’s. That if he delivers money in the United States, he is free. Therefore, now they prefer to go extradited. A bilateral agreement would have to be made so that the extradition is without legal benefits,” Petro said, in an interview with SEMANA at the time.
“If I am the president of Colombia, excuse me, my justice is the justice of Colombia. Not the justice of other types of powers or economic interests. But do not kneel to foreign powers. Not from that to me, ”he added on that occasion.
Will this affect Petro’s presidential campaign? Or will Teflon keep catching up with you?
