Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro sacked his anti-corruption and regional development advisers for their alleged role in the embezzlement of disaster relief funds.
Petro announced this after the former acting director of disaster relief agency UNGRD, Sneyder Pinilla, told prosecutors and press that he gave regional development adviser Sandra Ortiz 3 billion pesos ($769,000) to bribe Senate president Ivan Name (Green Alliance).
Pinilla additionally said that he personally gave a billion pesos ($256,000) to the president of the House of Representatives, Andres Calle (Liberal Party).
The bribes were meant to seek their support for the government’s proposed social reforms.
Petro also sacked his anti-corruption chief, Andres Idarraga, after WhatsApp chats emerged in which he promised the UNGRD’s disgraced former acting director to obstruct investigations.
Pinilla and his former boss, Olmedo Lopez, lost their jobs earlier this year over the alleged embezzlement of UNGRD budget to respond to extreme drought in La Guajira, Colombia’s northernmost province.
According to Lopez, he was following orders to Petro’s former chief of staff and current intelligence chief, Carlos Ramon Gonzalez.
Prosecutor General Luz Adriana Camargo announced protection measures for Lopez and Pinilla to secure their ongoing cooperation with justice.
Camargo also announced the creation of an interinstitutional commission that would allow both the government and the prosecution to respond to alleged corruption.
This commission was proposed by think tank Pares, but had been binned by Petro’s now-former anti-corruption chief.
The mushrooming scandal is a major embarrassment for the president, who was elected in 2022 after promising to root out the government corruption that had disgraced previous administrations.
Green Alliance also announced steps to remove the controversial Senate president and the former presidential adviser for regional development from the coalition party.
The Liberal Party said that its ethics committee would begin an investigation into the president of the House of Representatives.
