Investigators from intelligence agencies have been struck by the fact that Piedad Córdoba, a senator elected by the Historical Pact, has visited the prison of the pillory a a renowned Venezuelan businessman.
The man was issued arrest warrant in Colombia in 2013 for the crimes of money laundering, criminal association, aggravated smuggling and obtaining foreign currency by fraudulent means.
Cordoba has said that he is the victim of a montage by his political opponentswho accuse her of visiting La Picota prison to allegedly get support for Gustavo Petro’s campaign for the presidency in exchange for offering supposed extradition adjustments.
For his brother?
However, the senator of the Historical Pact came out to explain that admissions to that maximum security prison are due to the legal and family support he is providing to his brotherthe extraditable Álvaro Freddy Córdoba.
The elected senator, investigated by the Supreme Court of Justice and investigated in the United States for her links with Alex Saab, registers entries in previous years.
In the list of visits to La Picota, between 2011 and 2022, in addition to the meeting with Seuxis Paucías Hernández, ‘Jesús Santrich’, on August 15, 2018 and the meeting with his brother, Freddy Córdoba, on March 24, there is a record with Antonio Gómez López from December 18, 2014.
Time investigated and established that the latter was captured for extradition purposes on June 21, 2013 in Colombiathanks to a red notice from Interpol.
In Venezuela he was required for customs crimes committed by the conglomerate of companies Agrobueyca, dedicated to the animal feed trade, of which Gómez López was president.
The appeal
Businessman received, between 2004 and 2012, more than 843 million dollars of foreign exchange at preferential rate. This would have allowed it to grow rapidly, until it produced more than 45,000 tons of food per month and occupied 20% of that market.
«Between December 9, 2011 and March 27, 2012, Antonio Gómez López, president of the Agrobueyca company, requested foreign currency to pay the secondary supplier for the merchandise purchased at a premium. Cadivi issues the payments (with a surcharge) on behalf of the secondary suppliers where Antonio Gómez López, who is a shareholder«, reads the arrest warrant of the Colombian Prosecutor’s Office.
On March 11, 2015, the Supreme Court of Justice approved his extradition to Venezuela. There, in the midst of the investigation once morest him, a court of first instance in the State of Aragua decreed the dismissal (which suspends a process due to lack of cause) of that case on November 3, 2020.
Coincidences with case in Court?
However, 17 days later, 2 prosecutors appealed the decision in an appeals court in the State of Aragua. The resource is being evaluated and there is still no decision. In this issue there is a common denominator with the investigation that is being carried out once morest Córdoba in the Supreme Court.
Although one of the seams of the investigation is her alleged links with the FARC and the proselytizing use of her role as a mediator for the release of hostages, there is another one. It’s regarding the alleged commissions in money that Córdoba would have received for helping arrange payments from the Venezuelan regime to a handful of businessmen, including Saab.
Several of them, as happened with Gómez López, used the National Currency Commission of Venezuela. The senator insists that these accusations are part of an entrapment once morest him and PetroIn addition to marginalizing her from the campaign, she asked the ethics committee of the Historic Pact, still under construction, to evaluate her conduct.
But his fate is in the hands of the Supreme Court and the investigations carried out by federal agents in the United States.