11/03/2023
The secrecy and isolation that are usually characteristic of President Gustavo Petro’s way of governing only falter before the media exposure of a person who is also a protagonist in the House of Nariño. And it is not the Minister of the Interior and government spokesman, Alfonso Prada, nor his chief of staff, Laura Sarabia. It is the First Lady, Verónica Alcocer.
In the halls of the Palace it is well known that Alcocer is one of the select people who whispers into the ear – and even scolds – the Head of State on a daily basis, and thanks to that privileged position that he occupies next to the president, as his sentimental partner and main advisor, has managed to transform this capacity for influence into political and bureaucratic power within the National Government.
A good part of that power and influence that the First Lady has in official decisions has mutated towards the easy achievement of high positions –and even juicy contracts– in the Executive, which have ended up in the hands of a series of people who landed in high places. spheres of power thanks to the ‘rosca’ that is facilitated by being all close to Alcocer and Petro himself.
EL COLOMBIANO traced the traces left by the First Lady’s ‘enchufados’ who landed on different fronts of the Government and established that 12 people who are part of the closest circle of the Petro-Alcocer family were awarded key positions despite the fact that the Head of State promised in the campaign that merits would prevail over cronyism. Is there a contradiction?
bureaucracy vs. merit
One of the events that most exposed the influence that Alcocer exerts in the Government were his moves so that the Foreign Ministry handed over Colombian nationality to three Catalan friends of his on a silver platter, and evading costly procedures, between the months of September and November. of 2022, just following Petro became President.
The three Spanish beneficiaries were Eva Ferrer, Xavier Vendrell and Manuel Graul. The first is recognized as the First Lady’s best friend and – in addition to having accompanied her on official trips – she was ‘awarded’ with two high positions. First, Petro named her High Presidential Advisor for Children and Adolescents, and she currently holds the position of High Advisor for Reconciliation.
For their part, Vendrell and Graul are an ex-terrorist and politician, and a businessman, respectively, who, thanks to the closeness they achieved with the presidential family, received their documents as Colombians. Both now move easily in the Casa de Nariño and collaborate with the Alcocer office. The list is completed by 9 acquaintances of the First Lady, including her best childhood friend, a schoolmate and a personal lawyer.
First lady out of the trivial
In addition to influencing the management of important entities, presidential councils and even embassies, Alcocer moves like a political figure, since he has been seen in Congress and has had contacts with different political groups in the Caribbean region, especially in his native Sucre.
And that’s not all. Alcocer managed to pull the strings of presidential power so that the Foreign Ministry appointed her “ambassador on special mission” through decree 1893 of September 14, 2022, with which she acquired more powers than those of a social manager in the Government. With the new faculties, she was able to travel to the United Kingdom, the United States, Italy and Japan, and even on some of these trips abroad, as a diplomat, she took several friends with her.
Among these “missions” that the Government delegated to the First Lady are her visit to Rome to meet with Pope Francis, her attendance at the funeral of the former Prime Minister of Japan, Shintzo Abe, in Tokyo, the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II in London, and participation in the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
This newspaper tried to contact the First Lady to find out her version of these additional powers and the list of friends she managed to make them become senior officials, but at press time it did not receive a response. In any case, this ‘roscograma’ that Alcocer built calls into question the promise of change that the Petro government made to try to leave traditional bureaucratic practices behind. Now repeat them.
This is how the ‘roscograma’ of Alcocer in the Government is made up:
eva ferrer
She was a counselor for Children and is now a counselor for Reconciliation.
She is a communications strategist who managed to obtain Colombian nationality expressly thanks to Alcocer to be a civil servant. They met in 2012 during Petro’s visit to Catalonia and became best friends, as Ferrer is known as the right hand of the First Lady.
Carolina Plata Navas
He received a $482 million contract to lead the protocol of the presidential houses.
Contractor wife of businessman Danilo Romero Gómez, who is close to Petro since he financed his campaign for the Bogotá Mayor’s Office in 2011. Beyond the closeness between Petro and her husband, she is a close friend of Alcocer, whom she even calls on social media as their “soul sister”.
Carmen Cecilia Caballero
Director of Procolombia. It manages a budget of $150,000 million annually.
She is a dentist who served as consul in Seville and was also an adviser to Carlos Caicedo, Petrista and current governor of Magdalena. She became friends with the First Lady thanks to her roots from the Caribbean region. She was born in Santa Marta and studied in Barranquilla.
Adriana Mejia Aguado
Director of Colombian Crafts. She manages a budget of regarding $38,000 million annually.
She is a lawyer, plastic artist. She was director of the Gilberto Alzate Avendaño Foundation during Petro’s mayoralty and was a candidate for Congress in 2018. She worked as a lawyer for Nicolás Alcocer in the process that finally gave him a free hand to be adopted by Petro, it is said that she is a friend of the family Petro Alcocer for 20 years.
Ligia Margarita Quessep
Ambassador of Colombia in Italy. In the Foreign Ministry she is highlighted as an outstanding official.
Lawyer from the Externado de Colombia University and Master in Public International Law. She met the First Lady at the Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes girls’ school in Sincelejo, Sucre, where they both studied together.
Conception Barakaldo
She was director of the Colombian Institute of Family Welfare (ICBF) until February 8. The entity has a budget of $8.5 billion.
Economist, with studies in administration and design and a doctorate in Economics, but had no experience in children’s issues. She was a neighbor of the First Lady in the municipality of Chía, where the Petro-Alcocer family lives and where they became very close friends.
Jorge Arturo Quessep
Regional Director of the Department of Social Prosperity in Sucre.
Lawyer who has worked as a consultant in the legal area of the Government of Sucre. He knows the first lady because his sister (the current Colombian ambassador to Italy) is his childhood friend and is also from the department of Sucre.
Eduardo Avila
Ambassador of Colombia in Spain.
Business administrator focused on the area of technology without any experience in diplomatic posts. He is close to the presidential family since he has worked with his brother Polo Ávila in supporting the campaigns led by Gustavo Petro.
Hernando Chica Zuccardi
President of the Agrarian Bank. It manages an annual budget that amounts to $1,000 million.
He was Vice President of Human Management at the ETB of the Gustavo Petro Mayor’s Office in Bogotá. In 2012 he was Secretary of Finance in the Sincelejo mayor’s office. He is close to Jairo Fernández Quessep, the former mayor of Sincelejo, who is the uncle of former congressman Mario Fernández Alcocer, a cousin of the First Lady.
William Reyes
Transport Minister. It manages a budget of $14.8 billion annually.
Lawyer who has been a contractor in the Itagüí municipality as a file for conservative senator Carlos Andrés Trujillo. He has been questioned for alleged plagiarism. It is said that he is close to the First Lady because he is the husband of Carmen Larrazábal, a friend of Alcocer. He has defended that he is not a Conservative Party quota.
Xavier Vendrell
He was a campaign adviser who benefited by gaining citizenship.
Pro-independence politician from Catalonia and ex-terrorist who faces charges for a corruption case before the Spanish justice system. He met her in Catalonia and became close to the Petro-Alcocer family. Petro brought it along for her presidential campaign and is now close to the First Lady’s office. He is trying to get the Foreign Ministry to grant him a diplomatic passport to get him out of the Spanish justice system.
Manuel Grau Pujadas
He is part of the board of directors of Cisa, the state real estate collector.
Spanish businessman who has various projects in Colombia since 2012 and has contracted with the Mayor’s Office of Santa Marta. He has been an adviser to the presidential family and, without being an official, has accompanied Alcocer on official trips. He has also been seen at the presidential house in Cartagena.
Those of the campaign that were “awarded”
Apart from Alcocer’s roscograma, there are other people who came to positions of power just because they were old acquaintances of Petro. The president handed out diplomatic posts with the same formula that he criticized when he was a senator.
Andres Camilo Hernandez
General Consul of Colombia in Mexico.
Journalist who has worked in media outlets such as RCN and Caracol Radio. He was Petro’s press officer, worked with him in Congress for more than 4 years. He is close to the presidential family because of his work alongside Petro. Public Function pointed out that he was not suitable for the position due to the lack of accreditation of experience.
Sebastian Guanumen
General Consul of Colombia in Chile.
He was a communications adviser and strategist for Petro in the presidential campaign. Remembered for his order to “run the ethical line” to campaign once morest other candidates such as Federico Gutiérrez. Thanks to his leading role in the last presidential campaign, he became close to the Head of State and got this position despite the fact that he does not have a diplomatic career.
Moses Ninco Daza
Ambassador of Colombia in Mexico.
He has been a community manager, but he does not have a professional degree, since he suspended his studies at the Sergio Arboleda University in the ninth semester. He has worked for Gustavo Bolívar in Colombia Humana and participated in the Petro campaign. Despite his lack of title and experience, he was awarded the appointment.
Jose Nicholas Barrios
He was director of the Seine in Córdoba.
Accountant, Master in Development Policies, and in Business Administration and Management. He landed in this high position on the recommendation of Nicolás Petro, the President’s eldest son, as recognized by the director of Sena, Jorge Londoño.