2023-07-06 17:35:32
“The ambassador in Venezuela is retiring from the government, so that from the power that this position implies, they cannot even have the distrust that the investigation processes are going to be altered,” said President Gustavo Petro more than a month ago when announced the departure of its ambassador, Armando Benedetti in the midst of the scandal over the attacks on Laura Sarabia’s employees.
However, a week later, the Presidency issued an order for the Foreign Ministry to extend Benedetti’s term until July 19, overcoming the objections of Foreign Minister Álvaro Leyva.
This is behind the scenes of an episode that reveals the privileged treatment that Petro gives his controversial ambassador.
Delayed departure by order of the Presidency
Benedetti began by playing a secondary role in the episode of the attacks on the former employees of Sarabia. But he ended up at the center of a bigger scandal when Semana magazine leaked audio recordings of a conversation between him and Sarabia in which he talks regarding alleged irregular financing of Petro’s campaign.
Petro announced the ambassador’s departure on June 2. Two days later, Benedetti told Semana magazine that 15 billion pesos had entered the presidential campaign, in which he was the shadow of the candidate, from the Caribbean Coast. He also insinuated that, like himself, the president used cocaine.
In a few days, Benedetti went from being a key political operator of Petrism to becoming the biggest threat to this project due to the explosive revelations he was making.
However, on June 7, he left the country saying he was threatened, and has not spoken since. The last thing that was known is that the Foreign Ministry signed a decree extending his term until the 19th of this month, 20 days following the announcement of his alleged dismissal.
Three weeks ago, during Petro’s trip to Germany, Chancellor Leyva received an order from the Presidency to keep him in office. According to what La Silla learned from a Foreign Ministry source, Leyva initially refused to do so.
“First, because he did not agree, second because Benedetti’s departure already had established dates,” explains the diplomatic source, who asks not to publish his name to give more details.
“Leyva and Benedetti had a terrible relationship, Benedetti did not report to him and did not consider him his boss,” another diplomatic source who knew the relationship first-hand told La Silla, “that’s why when he went through the whole thing with Sarabia, Leyva was one of the most benefited and made sure to speed up his departure.
This was recognized by the chancellor himself. Three days following Petro’s announcement, at a press conference outside the San Carlos Palace regarding the departure of his subordinate, he said: “How can you believe Benedetti? If he himself says that he is a drug addict, ”said the foreign minister. “For this reason, we accelerated fully and in three hours it was changed, what’s more, his resignation was from June 23 and I began to think that it was best to accept it immediately and that’s how it was proceeded,” he concluded.
That same followingnoon, the Foreign Ministry announced that they had received Venezuela’s approval for Milton Rengifo —who worked for 12 years at Petro’s UTL— to arrive at the Colombian embassy in Caracas.
Despite Leyva’s initial refusal to keep Benedetti in office, a week following the trip to Germany, the Presidency told the chancellor that “he had to leave it no matter what”, as confirmed by the Chair with two sources from the Foreign Ministry who They requested the reservation of his name.
“The chancellor did not sign and neither did he ask any of the vice ministers to sign, so the general secretary, José Antonio Salazar, ended up signing,” says one of the sources. Finally, the Decree 1002 of June 20, 2023 allows Benedetti to remain until July 19 in the position of ambassador in Venezuela.
“I want to be explicit: I do not keep the position because of the jurisdiction, nor because of the salary,” trino Benedetti following signing the decree, “I will advance, from Colombian territory, the process of delivery and connection of the Embassy in Venezuela.”
Benedetti explained to La Silla that he asked for “20 extra days and unpaid, first to legally organize myself and, second, to bring my things from there.”
Regardless of the motivation for prolonging his position, while he is ambassador, his processes for alleged illicit enrichment, influence peddling, violation of communications, and libel and slander remain in the Prosecutor’s Office. They arrived at that entity in September of last yearwhen the magistrate César Reyes – who was handling the processes in the Supreme Court – considered that, with the arrival of Benedetti at the embassy, they had to be investigated by the Prosecutor’s Office because their constitutional jurisdiction changed.
Due to the denunciations of the magistrate Cristina Lombana regarding irregularities of the Prosecutor’s Office in their processes, the Superior Court of Bogotá ruled that it will be the full room of the Court that decides if the Benedetti processes return to that court or stay in the Prosecutor’s Office.
In any case, his time at the embassy was controversial.
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