2023-07-11 07:09:26
12:01 AM
Ex-senator Bernardo Miguel ‘Ñoño’ Elías was received by a crowd in Sahagún, Córdoba, as if he were an athlete who had just emerged champion. And upon returning to that municipality, where he was born and where his fort is established, Elías officially resumed his political agenda to finalize details of the electoral alliance that he has planned with Petrism.
Also read: Petro government turned entities into bureaucratic forts to pay favors
This Cordovan politician has just been given probation from the 13-year sentence he is serving for receiving bribes from Odebrecht, but that snake that he has with the law will not prevent him from participating – in the body of another – in the October elections, since his tab will be Gabriel Calle Aguas, who has the support of the Historical Pact to aspire to the Governor of Córdoba.
‘Ñoñomania’ revived in Sahagún
On Sunday a whole controversy broke out following dozens of people took to the streets of Sahagún, to receive Elías with a massive motorbike caravan. But it turns out that this questioned politician is seen as a true hero in that Cordovan municipality because there he and his family have built a political and bureaucratic emporium that has taken him to the highest spheres of power in the country.
Since 2006, when he was barely 30 years old, the “Ñoño” jumped into politics, and although he obtained just over 10,000 votes in his town, he achieved a seat in the House of Representatives and became a local political phenomenon thanks to to the pompous events he did with the community.
Elías gained recognition from that time because in addition to managing works such as road paving, on weekends he traveled from Bogotá to Sahagún to hold community parties with raffles, gifts and banquets, an activity that was popularly called “Ñoñomania”. .
This allowed him to consolidate a political capital that took him to the Senate four years later with 62,050 votes, and in 2014 he repeated the seat reaching a total of 145,402 supports, thus becoming the third most voted candidate in those elections and consolidating Sahagún as his electoral stronghold. .
Such was the relevance and power that he obtained, that through his management of resources he managed for Sahagún to have more than 90% of its streets paved, 8 kilometers of bike paths and even a headquarters of the University of Córdoba. But that power was curbed in 2017 when he was captured for being part of the Odebrecht corruption network.
After being imprisoned for almost six years, Elías returned to his homeland and it is clear that with this ‘repatriation’ he will be participating behind the scenes in the elections, and his local and regional political project now has ties to that of President Gustavo Petro.
Petro, ‘Ñoño’ and Besaile: allies?
Although Petro has been a staunch critic of political clans, it seems that now he will make an exception in Córdoba, where the candidate for Governor who inherited his banners is the same as Elías and Musa Besaile, also a former Sahagún senator who has He has been prosecuted for the toga cartel and for parapolitics.
This is Gabriel Calle Aguas, who received the endorsement of the Petrista political coalition for being fully trusted by the president, since in 2022 he was appointed by him as manager of his presidential campaign in Córdoba and at the beginning of his government he decided to name him chief cabinet of the Ministry of the Interior.
This endorsement was notified last weekend at the four-star Santorini Loft hotel in the city of Montería, where Jerónimo Mestra, a member of the Pact’s departmental coordination, confirmed that Calle Aguas will be the candidate for Petrism.
“The Historical Pact makes public the decision to build a broad front to win the Governor’s elections with Gabriel Calle Aguas, a candidate committed to the process of change,” Mestra said at the event.
The paradoxical thing regarding the case is that within the Pact there is a whole crossroads due to this support for Calle Aguas, since it is an old political ally of ‘Ñoño’ Elías, whose massive reception was questioned by petrist bishops, such as former senator Gustavo Bolívar.
“The thug ‘Ñoño’ Elías stole the education and health of his people and those same people come out to receive him as a hero and with a caravan when he gets out of jail. This is the stupid Colombia that we must educate now,” Bolívar said on Twitter.
Despite these criticisms, Bolívar will end up sharing a candidate in Córdoba with Elías and also with the questioned Besaile, who in mid-June Milena Flórez –Besaile’s wife– withdrew from her candidacy for the governorship of that department to join Calle’s campaign. waters.
“Milena Flórez is an exceptional woman, full of dignity and nobility. I will proudly carry her flag of social inclusion and respect for women, ”said Calle Aguas as gratitude for Flórez’s adhesion.
Nicolás Petro, the president’s son, had given clues to this electoral alliance with Elías and Besaile, who at the beginning of the year met and photographed Eduardo Elías Zarur, a file for ‘Ñoño’. This has made it clear that Petrism has no problem making behind-the-scenes alliances with questioned political clans, even though in public they are treated as “thugs” as Bolívar did.
The links of the Calle de Córdoba clan with Petro
Gabriel Calle Aguas is a lawyer who is part of the well-known Calle de Córdoba clan. He is the son of Gabriel Calle, who was mayor of the municipality of Montelíbano, deputy for Córdoba and also a candidate for Congress for the Cambio Radical party. He is an ally of Petro because he managed his presidential campaign in Córdoba and because his brother, the liberal representative Andrés Calle Aguas, moves in the Chamber aligned with the Government.
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