After the Attorney General’s Office decided to withdraw the two pre-agreements that he had signed with the confessed corrupt businessman Carlos MattosSEMANA learned of a popular action presented by the journalist Gonzalo Guillén, for the alleged “violation and threat of collective rights to the truth”, as a protected victim.
To close the negotiation that was being carried out with Carlos Mattos and achieve the preliminary agreement, According to information revealed in the media, one of the conditions was that the existence of possible payments from Mattos to journalist Gonzalo Guillén be recognized, in order to affect the image of the Prosecutor’s Office.
The lawyer Cancino did not participate directly in the elaboration of said agreement, but another lawyer, Alejandro Sánchez; That’s what Cancino said in interviews during the Congress of Jurists that took place a few weeks ago in Barranquilla.
This is confirmed with a popular action that was filed before the Administrative Court of Cundinamarca by Gonzalo Guillén once morest the prosecution, and the defense of Mattos, headed by the lawyer Iván Cancino.
Precisely, Guillén argues in the popular action that within the evidence “in defense of journalism as a victim and the real truth, especially when I am not the only journalist or media outlet to refer to the Hyundai-Mattos case, I evidenced that the unusual change of the Office of the Attorney General of the Nation, which was none other than to demand that Mr. Mattos, as the only condition for access a pre-agreement that maintained that the undersigned had received some stipends with the sole purpose of discrediting the Prosecutor’s Officean assertion that, apart from insulting and slandering me, affected the right to the truth that corresponds to Colombian society in its broadcast and reception.”
Next, Guillén presents a private recording in which he talks with Cancino and which, according to him, would prove “the harmful, malicious and malicious actions of the Prosecutor’s Office (State), the defense of Mr. Mattos and the representative of the victim of the Executive Directorate of Judicial Administration”. The transcribed recording features Iván Cancino, defender of Carlos Mattos. However, he also puts on the table that the criminal did not participate in that condition, but was the lawyer Alejandro Sánchez.
In the first recording, Cancino mentions information that was disclosed by the media that indicated that just proving payments to Guillén was one of the requirements for the agreement to be carried out.
But it also makes it clear that at that time Mattos was (linked) to the lawyer Sánchez who agreed to carry out the pre-agreement.
recording 1
Ivan Cancino: “The only thing that, let’s say, is very certain, that Darcy Quinn published, I don’t know who would give him the note, I think it was someone from Carlos’ office or family, is that he reaches this guy Sánchez and charges him 900 thousand dollars, crazy. And he tells him: 300 thousand in advance and I’ll help him “balance” the negotiation. When I use the word “square” I am not aware that it was something bad, but with that money, One does not know. I have received very well monthly, but in three years I have gathered that sum. And I’m not going to say that I haven’t been paid well, but it’s been three years, not two months. And I start to feel my elbow and (inaudible) What is happening? Sure, Emilio Tapia, bravo me, because when I represent the Ministry of Communications (in the case of Populated Centers), he asks for a hearing to go to Malambo. I object, no sir. First, the competition is not the judge of Malambo, second, ta, ta tá, you have not repaired, I oppose you very hard”.
In the dialogue, Cancino tells how the agreement was reached that was finally signed and in which, contrary to what was announced by the media, Mattos did not commit to denouncing any type of payment. In addition, that the promise of lawyer Sánchez to carry out a favorable pre-agreement fell like a house of cards.
“So he sees two things in Carlos: money and the possibility of starting to give me elbows. And Sánchez arrives and begins to say no business, when suddenly the death blow comes. Prosecutor Betancur sends him a letter saying “we do not negotiate with you”, and Sánchez had said that he was his best friend. And another very important plus there, the attorney general at that time was very intelligent and said, something happened here.”
In other words, for Guillén here it would be evident that Cancino was part of a kind of “setup” to say that Mattos had paid him. However, in the end, it is clear that the lawyer did not participate in the pre-agreement at any time.
In the second recording, Cancino makes it clear that the development of the agreement was not a subject that he had elaborated. But he also confesses to Guillén himself that he sees him as a “strong enemy.”
recording 2
Gonzalo Guillen: That the call is illegal because they mightn’t have a cell phone, right? Over there a prosecutor was fired for that, right?
Ivan Cancino: (…) So, yes, Carlos (Mattos), ‘Ivancito, come help me’… Now yes. So I go, I approach, and they are reluctant. I think that Sánchez had to tell him how much he was paid and Betancur told him: ‘come on, come on, let’s see what happens’, the negotiation opens and closes on Monday. I go to the bunker with Alejandro, with Laura, the lawyer who appears there with him, who is my acquaintance, my handiwork, well, and I talk to Carlos and explain. Before leaving we were in forty-eight months in prison, compensation whose maximum was two million dollarssome public excuses, the payment of the fine, that here nobody pays the fine of one and admit the facts with one caveat: that in Carlos Mattos’s apartment there was never any money.
At that time there was no longer any requirement to report the alleged payment to Guillén to discredit the Prosecutor’s Office; the decision, explained by Cancino, was that Guillén was a strong enemy, it was better not to get into that mess with the pre-agreement.
Cancino: “I go back and tell him: Carlos, that didn’t happen. Ah, well then there is no negotiation and we stop. I said, son of a bitch, and what do I do? Give us 10 minutes. I tell Sánchez, I tell Carlos and I told Laura, because I did leave Laura as guarantor, you can’t mess with issues that aren’t true, even though the Prosecutor’s Office. And I’m going to tell you the exact words, I said: first, because Gonzalo Guillén is a very strong enemy, and I admit it. I told him, he’s not an asshole and he’s not going to stay (inaudible). Second, you never told me regarding it. So, today they receive an interrogation, you say something, in a month you say another bullshit, it’s not logical. But since you don’t want me, I’ll leave the shampoo here and I’ll go. Three in the followingnoon Carlos calls me, “no, this man is not good for an ass. Come and fix. I come back and it’s not 48 months anymore, it’s eighty-odd and it’s fifty-six”.
The dialogues that Guillén presents in his popular action are forceful. Cancino, for his part, did not agree, he had even rejected it, pointing out that Guillén “was a strong enemy.” Attorney Sánchez tried to include the issue in the unsuccessful negotiation, which ended up collapsing when Mattos was released from prison as if they were outings.
