2024-01-21 05:02:04
12:01 AM
The opening of a contract for 200 billion pesos to carry out a garbage collection pilot in two communes of the city was one of the scandals left by Daniel Quintero’s administration, and not only because it is a very expensive business that All the experts saw it as crazy, also because behind Themac—the beneficiary firm—is Manuel Gran Pujada, a Catalan friend of President Gustavo Petro. It turns out that the owner of 45% of that company is Fabio Mascialino, an Italian with a file close to Argentine uranium trafficking and environmental problems due to his subsidiaries in Latin America.
According to files from several security offices in the region, Fabio Mascialino is related to Argentine uranium smuggling and has fines in Brazil and Ecuador for irregularities in timing, information and compliance with contracts that caused environmental problems in cities such as Rio de Janeiro and Quito.
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Mascialino is a member of the National Union of Knights of Italy (UNCI), a non-profit organization that awards knighthood honors in that country. In 2016, Mascialino was awarded by the UNCI with the Honor and Merit distinction, for his “professionalism and the promotion he makes to the world of technology created in Italy.”
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According to an article published by Europa Press, this foreigner who landed by parachute in Medellín with a million-dollar contract, following being in Latin America since 2010, is a fan of rallies, fishing and golf.
The company that entered the region was Omb Latam – currently in bankruptcy and fraud proceedings – which is part of the Busi Group, which specializes “in the design, production and marketing of innovative products and systems for the collection , compaction and transportation of waste.”
Mascialino lives in Santiago de Chile, but has had businesses in Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Ecuador. For nine years he enjoyed relative anonymity, until in 2019 the digital media Infobae named him as part of a network that involved Argentina and Venezuela to sell uranium to Iran. Argentina has regarding 30 thousand tons of the main material for the construction of nuclear energy.
According to what was published, Mascialino was part of a network of illegal sales of Argentine uranium to the government of Iran that was taken through Venezuela during the government of Cristina Kirchner. However, the investigation was shelved. The purpose of the network was to sell nuclear waste from Argentina to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, leader of Iran.
Said agreement would have been made with Julio Montes, who was Venezuela’s ambassador to Bolivia and Cuba. The waste was sent from Buenos Aires with a stopover in Caracas. Although said investigation was dismissed and archived, Mascialino continued his waste and garbage management businesses in Latin America.
Themac opened its operations in Chile in 2010, and the first businesses were carried out in Uruguay, where Mascialino had a friendship with the Uruguayan officer Gernimo Cardozo and his brother-in-law Fernando Noitshc, who was director of urban cleaning services in Montevideo. These last two were intercepted by telephone by the CIA due to the alleged enrichment of uranium smuggling, according to the Africa Express media. However, in 2019 the CIA’s international investigation dismissed Mascialino as an actor in this illegal trafficking operation.
In its Latin American version, Themac has had different problems with its subsidiaries in Brazil and Ecuador. The Ecuadorian subsidiary, Themac Andina, was responsible for the health crisis that Quito experienced due to non-compliance with contracts, which produced cost overruns and a debt of 6.4 million dollars for the Public Toilet Company Emaseo. The National Public Procurement Service of Ecuador sanctioned the firm for declaring erroneous information for the award of a contract, in addition to giving it a 60-day suspension from participating in contracting processes.
Since 2017 Themac Colombia has been registered in Bogotá, at Calle 71 #10 – 40, whose partner is Manuel Grau, friend of President Gustavo Petro and his family. More than 6 companies are registered in this office with different purposes: consulting, food service, hotels, real estate and now waste management. This firm reported zero pesos in assets and income in 2022, however, last year that figure became 5.9 billion pesos in income and 3.1 billion pesos in assets from the private sector. However, in the Secop there is no information regarding Themac’s proposal to Emvarias, nor does the award document or all the documentation required by law appear.
There is still nothing clear regarding Themac’s complete landing in Medellín. A few days ago, the manager of EPM, John Maya, assured that the implementation of the contract has multiple logistical and financial questions for its execution. For now, another leg appears to the issue: in addition to the fact that it is a very onerous contract, with only execution in two communes of Medellín, and that behind it is a Catalan who achieved Colombian nationality in record time thanks to his friendship with the president of the Republic, now an Italian “gentleman” appears who has left not very holy trails throughout Latin America.
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