Some eight days before Daddy Yankee gave his farewell concert at the Atanasio Girardot, a group of officials from the Mayor’s Office were told to schedule their diaries to be at the Atanasio Girardot Stadium the next morning, since they had planned to deliver computers to the students of the city a day later, on Monday, October 17. The news caused joy, but for many it was a surprise that the same stage was used on which the king of reggaeton had sung.
It was quite a show. It is known that the mayor Daniel Quintero took to the stage in the middle of reggaeton songs, boosted by the great sound that the concert had had; On the same screens that had registered Yankee the night before, the name of the mayor appeared: the credit did not go to the program, much less the students, they were a showcase to move his image. And this was marked because later a row broke out: the teams turned themselves in outside, in a tumult in which there were injuries and confusion. Several from logistics wondered how Quintero had managed to use such furniture.
The suspicions were greater twenty days ago, when the same officials were told to be alert because there was the possibility of delivering more computers a day following the Bad Bunny concert. In the end it didn’t happen, but on the day of the event, while the stands were filled with fans, only publicity from the Mayor’s Office passed through the screens: Medellín Futuro, computers and other well-known slogans and programs.
It is not new that from public entities appears at city events. However, all roads lead to a name: Diomar García, one of the most powerful businessmen in the entertainment industry in Colombia, the same one who has put on the latest concerts in Medellín and who has given Mayor Quintero more than one gift. , but has it been free?
The mayor and his wife Diana Osorio have said on several occasions that these concerts are a city policy, and they themselves have participated and given away tickets through their social networks, some of them very expensive, since they are located in the boxes, the invention with the one that Diomar García has made his April. Even in the Alpujarra it is known that from the organization of the concerts, dozens of tickets are given to the Administration so that they can distribute them as they consider, thus maintaining the crossover of favors.
Now, Quintero often appears on his social networks as the “refounder of Medellín” —that’s what some people on Twitter call him—, and the same thing happens with concerts, it seems that he forgot that before the concerts that he played —Bad Bunny, Daddy Yankee, Karol G and Maluma—, other very large ones with planetary stars had already been organized: Madonna, Beyoncé, Guns & Roses and J Balvin. To say it clearly: the string of recitals is now a response to the economic reactivation, the artists have gone out on tour and the most skilled businessmen have kept the concerts.
The fact is that now Quintero has the key to sell his ideas: the reggaeton boom has its eyes on Medellín and that is why all the artists want to come here and influencers like Lalis, Sergio Barbosa, Mafe Carrascal (today a congressman), Wally They love reggaeton, which is why they end up at concerts, and taking photos, sometimes with Diana Osorio herself, some cabinet members and even the mayor. They have already talked regarding the contracts with which Quintero gives them guidelines so that they speak well of his administration and of the city.
On the other hand, there is the business man: Diomar García. Within the industry, everyone says that he is an expert, an impeccable man when it comes to putting together big events. A man who has been in the urban music business for more than ten years, and who saw stars like Maluma and Reykon being born.
“I know that he is close to the mayor, but more for convenience, because the man is the one who does the biggest music events and, obviously, where he does them he needs to be close to local governments, to facilitate the management of stadium permits, the Police, and other things that this implies (…) and we do know that the man (Daniel Quintero) asks for a cut from everything that moves in the city, or he or his brother (Miguel Quintero) ”, expressed a source Close to the event organizer.
García is a businessman from Cucuta who began selling clothes door-to-door in his city, quite an entrepreneur whose name became known in 2013 when the Prosecutor’s Office inquired regarding a complaint of alleged money laundering on a tour by Vicente Fernández; An anonymous denounced that the company Total Concerts in alliance with D&L Inversiones, of which García was a partner, had allegedly laundered more than 30 million dollars, according to what was published at the time by El Espectador.
In D&L, García was a partner of Luis Enrique Pérez Mogollón, alias El Pulpo, whom Álvaro Uribe Vélez had accused of being a drug trafficker in 2008. Pérez Mogollón was murdered in a restaurant he owned in Norte de Santander, in what local media called a vendetta between drug dealers Until today, said company remains active in the Single Business Registry.
Despite the scandals that have surrounded him, García became a major businessman who lives in Miami and moves all his businesses from the United States. In Medellín he moves more than concerts, he appears contracting with this mayor’s office through One Eventos, a company in which he is a shareholder.
For example, on June 3, 2021, One Eventos organized the audiovisual production service for the production of the Med Day event for more than 17 million pesos. The purpose of this was for Mayor Daniel Quintero to be able to “interact with the servers of the Medellín Mayor’s Office.”
The company of which García is a shareholder appeared once more on August 9, 2021, when it signed a contract for 668 million pesos with Metroparques, a decentralized entity that has the power to contract directly, to develop a mobile application for the Fair. of the Flowers of that year. The company returned to repeat at this year’s fair, with a contract with a similar object for 150 million pesos.
But it is not the only one, on October 29, 2022, Telemedellín hired One Eventos for the ” link” of a conference called The future is now —the mayor’s well-known slogan— and among whose speakers appeared Daniel Quintero. The event, by the way, did not even have publicity on social networks and one of the speakers might not attend because he had the flu.
According to the testimony of a young man who was in the logistics WhatsApp groups for the Karol G concert, and which was organized by the company D&G Eventos (also owned by Diomar García), in that group chat they were offered to work as electoral witnesses for the Historic Pact for the past legislative votes. They were offered a “souvenir” of 60,000 pesos to participate, which was paid via Baloto. It must be remembered that several former members of Quintero’s cabinet called witnesses for that day.
This all seems like a two-way relationship. In the Mayor’s Office it is said that it was Diomar García himself who put all the logistics to Quintero when he was dismissed by the Attorney General’s Office for his participation in politics and went out on the balcony of the Alpujarra to harangue once morest the National Government of Iván Duque .
Nothing seems random in the framework. A city of great concerts, a mayor who profits from them through social networks, who gives out tickets, who uses the stages, and a businessman who has contracts with the administration. What do the authorities say?
