Cecilia Álvarez Correa, in Medellín, on January 26, 2016. Luis Eduardo Noriega ((EPA) EFE)
The Odebrecht case is slowly progressing in Colombian politics. This Friday, the Attorney General’s Office announced that it was putting Cecilia Álvarez-Correa, Minister of Transport in the government of Juan Manuel Santos, on trial for irregularities in two additional contracts for Ruta del Sol II, the main road. between the center of the country and the Caribbean coast. This is the same case of unfair interest in the execution of contracts that she was accused of last July. Now the special chamber of the Supreme Court will set a date for the indictment hearing.
The prosecutor assures that Álvarez-Correa allowed the “irregular execution” of two of the others – 3 and 6 – of the contract, which added an additional road to the works between the municipality of Ocaña, in Norte de Santander, and Gamarra. a port on the Magdalena River in César. As explained in the letter, the then minister “did not prevent” the National Infrastructure Agency (ANI), an entity attached to the portfolio she oversees, from handing over the construction of this line to the Ruta del Sol consortium, of which she was the main shareholder Odebrecht. It also shows that Álvarez-Correa allowed ANI to do this without taking into account other companies’ proposals. The prosecution adds that in doing so he disregarded the rules and a concept of the Council of State’s consultation room on the Ruta del Sol II, as well as the possibility of adding works to contracts already signed, but does not accuse him of receiving bribes.
The alleged crimes are said to have taken place between September 2012 and August 2014. On July 6, Álvarez-Correa appeared before the prosecutor’s office for an arraignment hearing. In it, the prosecution accused the former minister of favoring certain people by building the road and introducing tolls. Among the beneficiaries was the family of his then partner, former minister Gina Parody.
In addition, according to the prosecutor’s office, Álvarez-Correa gave authorization to the then president of the ANI, Luis Fernando Andrade, “also accused”, to add the construction of the Río de Oro-Aguaclara-Gamarra crossing, part of the road between Ocaña and the Port, to the concessionaire. In addition, the public prosecutor’s office accuses the former minister of allowing the concessionaire, in return for these additional works, to increase the tariffs at five toll booths on Ruta del Sol II: San Vito, Agua Negra, La Gómez, Morrison and Pailitas.
The former minister is far from the first politician in the country to be accused of corruption in connection with the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht. Last August, prosecutors indicted 33 former Colombian officials and another 22 lobbyists, contractors and private individuals for improper interest in executing contracts. The defendants included ANI’s former president Andrade and the construction company’s founder and former director Marcelo Odebrecht.
Because of these allegations, Colombian President Gustavo Petro called on prosecutors to investigate those involved in the Odebrecht case, which has touched almost every corner of America and affected presidents in other countries. This is not the case in Colombia, although Odebrecht co-financed Santos’ two presidential campaigns and Uribista Óscar Iván Zuluaga’s rival campaign in 2014.
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Petro then also directed the State Department to seek further cooperation with the authorities of the United States and Brazil. “Brazilians who have committed crimes in Colombia enjoy complete impunity and Odebrecht has not paid a single peso of the fines imposed in Colombia,” he explained.
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