Former ministers Luis Fernando Velasco (Interior) and Ricardo Bonilla (Treasury) were charged on Monday for their alleged participation in the biggest corruption case faced by Gustavo Petro’s government, regarding the diversion of contracts from the National Risk Management Unit. The Attorney General’s Office charged them with conspiracy to commit aggravated crimes, undue interest in the performance of contracts, and bribery for giving or offering gifts to members of Congress in exchange for support in Congress. The prosecutor in the case, María Cristina Patiño, also asked the Bogota Supreme Court judge in charge of the procedure to impose house arrest on the former officials while the process was underway.
Although Velasco and Bonilla pleaded not guilty, the district attorney’s office insisted in an all-day hearing that they were the masterminds of the plot. The former head of the political file, a veteran politician of liberal origin, confirmed that he would present a different version from the one defended by the main witnesses in the Public Prosecutor’s Office. He said in his virtual intervention: “I hope, with all due respect, Madam Prosecutor, that when you listen to us, you will be able to confront what they told you because the country only heard one voice.” Bonilla, who arrived on the bus by taxi, also defended his actions. The economist said: “I carried out my duties as Minister of Finance to the fullest extent, and adhered to the constitution and the law. I am certain that I did not commit any crime and I will defend my innocence.”
According to the Attorney General’s Office, between May 2023 and February 2024, the former ministers caused public funds from the UNGRD and the National Highway Institute (Invías) to be directed to contractors appointed by several members of Congress to ensure the legislative majority of Gustavo Petro’s government. The accusation indicates that the network promoted 79 contracts worth 612,000 pesos, although only seven contracts were awarded. The beneficiaries, according to the indicators, will be members of the Joint Parliamentary Committee on Public Credit, the First and Seventh Committees of the Senate and the Third and Fourth Committees of the House of Representatives and the Senate. One of the documented facts corresponds to three contracts of Invías in the municipalities of Bolivar, Córdoba and Arauca, which could have been managed through Senator Julio Elías Chagüy, of the Independent Party of La U.
Velasco, according to the indicted body, was the main political spokesman: he intervened in the selection of the beneficiary members of Congress, determined the amounts and prioritized the actions that had to be approved for the transfer of resources. The prosecutor in the case explained that this coordination was due to periodic meetings with other officials, where they reviewed progress and discussed how to ensure a majority for the government. “At the meetings, relevant decisions were made on budget issues and implementation of program resources e.g Eliminate hunger“As a basis for the need to respond to emergencies and restore infrastructure,” explains the Prosecutor.
At the hearing, the Public Prosecutor’s Office presented some of the materials it obtained in its investigation, which include telephone intercepts and WhatsApp conversations, from which it reconstructed a meeting held on February 27, 2024 at Casa de Nariño. According to investigators, Velasco chaired the meeting in which the fugitive Carlos Ramon Gonzalez, then director of the presidential administrative department, participated. At that meeting, the Green Alliance Party leader had also instructed to present the contracts to several members of Congress. President Pietro’s former partner in the M-19 guerrilla war left the government after the scandal broke and later traveled to Nicaragua, where today he is protecting himself from an Interpol red notice.
The reconstruction process stems from statements by Olmedo Lopez, the former director of UNGRD who became a witness for the prosecutor’s office after accepting responsibility. Left-wing politician, his former deputy and confessed criminal Sneider Penilla described meetings held in Casa de Nariño, instructions for securing legislative support, and talks about “quotas” and assignments for specific members of Congress. “In the meetings between the ministers and UNGRD directors, there was also talk of ‘shutting down’ some members of Congress who did not support the government,” Prosecutor Patiño said during the proceedings.
Among other episodes. Lopez instructed Bonilla to ask him to sign the three contracts worth P92,000 million that would benefit Senator Chague. To justify the use of UNGRD resources, municipalities had to declare the absence of catastrophes in order to direct contracts towards their owners who, as the Prosecutor’s Office confirms, had previously been agreed with legislators.
Although everyone agrees that the conspiracy took place behind the president’s back, the case affected the anti-corruption banner that the leftist president had raised for decades. In May, two of the congressmen mentioned above were arrested: the liberal Pietrista Andrés Calle, president of the chamber at the time of the events, and Ivan Nehm, then president of the Senate, an ally and party partner of González and a strong critic of Pietro. The justification accuses them of receiving charity in exchange for promoting social reforms implemented by the executive authority, which are political commitments that were an essential part of the corruption mechanism, according to the Public Prosecutor’s Office.
Former presidential advisor Sandra Ortiz, who is very close to Nam, was also sent to preventive detention in December 2024 for her alleged role as an intermediary between government officials and beneficiary members of Congress. Ortiz denied any involvement in a still-expanding file that Prosecutor Patiño described, at the conclusion of her intervention, as a “criminal enterprise” led by Velasco and Bonilla.