Colombian President Álvaro Uribe sacked one of his advisers after
publications in several media increased suspicion the presidential adviser of municipal issues had close ties to suspected
money launderer DMG.
Presidential adviser Félix Alfazar was recorded when personally calling
DMG attorney Margarita Pabón. In a transcript published by weekly Cambio, Alfazar speaks of the
possibility for municipalities to invest in DMG and to allow “a
brother” to take part in the management of a DMG office in Medellín.
The website of newspaper El Espectador then published DMG documents that would prove the presidential adviser on a number of occasions had received money from DMG.
The same documents also show that money was given to lobbyist Óscar Iván Palacio, a close friend of the Presidency’s Press Secretary Óscar Iván Velásquez and the one who arranged DMG director David Murcia to meet Velásquez when DMG was about to be shut down by the government.
Cambio had earlier published transcripts of conversations between Palacio and a DMG executive wherein the lobbyist was trying to set up a meeting between the suspected money launderer and Velásquez in February 2008.
In reaction to the publication, Velásquez denies having met DMG
executives more than the previously admitted one time and says he asked
the Prosecutor General to investigate if his friend Palacio has used
his name only to incriminate him.
