Colombia’s prosecutor general revealed evidence implicating the current mayor of Bogota in an international campaign finance scandal.
The prosecutor general’s office reportedly submitted documents obtained from the defunct Colombian intelligence agency (DAS) which claim that the current mayor of Bogota, Gustavo Petro, traveled to Venezuela in 2006 to solicit campagin contributions for the now imprisoned ex-mayor of Bogota, Samuel Moreno.
The documents alledge that Petro made a trip to Caracas, Venezuela while he was a member of the Colombian congress to meet with various Venezuelan congressmen, the Venezuelan foreign minister and the mayor of Caracas in an effort to secure a meeting with President Hugo Chavez. Petro’s objective on the trip supposedly was to secure high-profile international support for the 2006 mayoral campaign of Samuel Moreno. The documents submitted by the prosecutor general’s office came from a DAS computer file which supposedly tracked Petro’s every move during the Moreno campaign detailing with whom he met and the subject of the meeting.
Moreno is currently in jail for fraudulent contracting, embezzlement and extortion. He was the mayor of Bogota until his arrest in 2011.
BACKGROUND: Suspended Bogota mayor charged with corruption
Labeled as “top secret,” the reports were made available due to the illegal wiretapping case against former DAS director Maria del Pilar Hurtado and the former secretary general of the presidency, Bernardo Moreno.
NEWS ARCHIVE: DAS wiretapping scandal
The legality of the evidence and the circumstances of its inclusion have not been ruled upon like much of the information tied to DAS, which was dismantled in 2011 in the aftermath of a huge scandal that tied the group to different paramilitary organizations.
These new corruptions allegations made against the ex-guerrilla and current mayor of Bogota, Gustavo Petro, come on the heels of multiple reports detailing the amount of corruption plauging Colombia.
BACKGROUND: There’s never been so much corruption: Colombia’s Inspector General
