2023-06-15 07:01:00
In the last hours of his life, Colonel Óscar Darío Dávila Torres – splashed in the chuzadas to the ex-nanny of the then chief of staff, Laura Sarabia – collected and delivered 50 million pesos to pay the fees of a lawyer. He spoke to the press, accompanied his family to the airport and called his brother to celebrate that the indigenous children of Guaviare had appeared.
Why was a suicide man managing how to respond to justice? How many were the shots fired inside the white van in which he died? And why did the policeman who accompanied him leave his sidearm in the car? All these are questions that remain unanswered and that will remain unknown until next week, when the Legal Medicine report is revealed as announced by the Prosecutor’s Office.
Meanwhile, the sketch of the colonel’s last days is reduced to movements within Bogotá and a series of secret meetings with which Dávila planned his defense.
To begin with, Colonel Dávila Torres was not just any police officer. He was an important man from the security team of the Presidency who was in charge of directing the “outposts” to each of the places visited by President Gustavo Petro and his closest circle.
But, before arriving there, Dávila had worked in a police investigation against the Clan del Golfo, the same armed group whose files showed the phone numbers of Marelbys Meza and Fabiola Perea, two former employees of Sarabia.
Due to these lines of power, the investigators believed that the colonel was a key piece in finding out who ordered the strikes and how this supposed criminal network came about that, until now, could affect him and his boss, the director of the Military House. , Carlos Fair.
With all that clear, the same colonel wrote a letter on June 2 in which he promised to cooperate with the Prosecutor’s Office, but he filed it only three days later, the Monday before his death.
Even without that entity calling him to make an official statement, it was learned that just two days later, on June 7, the Prosecutor’s Office sent seven CTI agents to raid the 13th floor of the DIAN, the headquarters from which Feria and Dávila work. and within which the investigators were looking for evidence of the illegal interceptions.
From then on – according to what would be his lawyer, Miguel Ángel del Río – Dávila began to feel pressured and to look for a way to defend himself in court.
That was how the next day, Thursday, he sought a meeting with Del Río to propose that he be his attorney in the harsh process that awaited him before the judges.
During that meeting, the colonel agreed to deliver an initial sum of 50 million for the lawyer to start the defense process.
But he didn’t have them at the time, so he spent that Thursday afternoon and Friday morning finding the money and delivering it in cash.
A couple of minutes later, at around 4:17 p.m. on Friday, Dávila received a call from journalist Sylvia Charry, from Cambio, and, in the middle of an uncomfortable conversation, told her that he could not comment on the subject because “they finished it”.
That was his last conversation with the press. She then reported to his family and just five minutes after speaking with his brother, he was found dead.
The circumstances of that time are still unclear. It is known that the truck parked at 6:05 pm, that the police officer who was with it got out of the vehicle at 6:13 pm, and that four minutes later they found the body with a shot that, at first sight, indicated a suicide.
The curious thing was that the Presidential Guard arrived on the scene first and then the Prosecutor’s Office, all this despite the fact that there was a headquarters of the entity a few blocks away where the events occurred.
For now, the Prosecutor’s Office has limited itself to saying that it is carrying out the corresponding investigations and that it will deliver the forensic report next week, even though most of those documents are ready in 72 hours.
Those who are convinced that it was a suicide are the president, the defense minister, Iván Vélasquez, and their circles.
Barely 12 hours after the body was removed, Petro tweeted that Dávila had “died by suicide” without showing evidence or waiting for the forensic result. And the same for Velásquez, who first said that there were two shots and then retracted saying that it was only one with two exit holes.
These statements in a case involving several of Petro’s closest bishops have not gone down well and have even generated suspicion. Why is the head of state so interested in making it clear that it was a suicide and not a induced death? There is the nut of the matter that has Dávila as the most drastic movement in the entire Sarabia case.
The last days and hours of Colonel Dávila
Wednesday June 7: the CTI raided the 13th floor of the dian looking for polygraph evidence
Barely two days after Colonel Dávila filed a letter with which he promised to collaborate with the Prosecutor’s Office, the Technical Investigation Corps of that entity, CTI, carried out a surprise raid on the 13th floor of the DIAN building. The operation was carried out by seven investigators who were in that mysterious office of the Presidency of the Republic for at least nine hours. As confirmed by Petro himself, Dávila and other members of the Public Force in charge of reviewing the sites that the president would attend worked there. However, it is believed that the interceptions of the former babysitter Marelbys Meza and another former employee of Laura Sarabia could also have been coordinated from there. After his departure, the CTI took USB flash drives, computers, and documents with files from the Presidency.
Thursday June 8: the important meeting one day before death
At least 24 hours before his death, the colonel held an important meeting to prepare his defense. The meeting took place at the Maki Restaurant of the prestigious Hotel La Fontana, in Bogotá. There Dávila, the lawyer Miguel Ángel del Río and two old acquaintances of the Colombian justice system attended: Major Jeferson Tocarruncho and Mayor Wadith Velásquez, both accused of illegally intercepting five of their colleagues in the case of the political Ñeñe. In that meeting, Del Río asked him for between 400 and 500 million pesos to defend him, but Dávila said that he did not have that money and offered a first payment of $50 million that the team accepted. According to the lawyer, that day Colonel Dávila already felt enough pressure from the agents of the Prosecutor’s Office and the constant calls from the press.
Friday June 9: Death or suicide?
10:25 pm Dávila sought the $50 million for the lawyer
After the meeting with Del Río, Colonel Dávila promised to deposit $30 million that Friday as an advance. At 10:25 a.m., one of Del Río’s investigators called him and told him that Dávila already had the money, but that he could only deliver it in cash.
3:50 pm Cash delivery
More than five hours later, the colonel managed to collect the remaining $20 million and contacted the investigator to find them. Once he was there, Dávila took out a briefcase with $50 million and gave it to the team to represent him.
4:17 pm “They finish me”: the last call with the press
In that gap between the delivery of the money and his death, the colonel answered the call of a Cambio journalist. There, he denied having details of the pranks to the nanny in the Sarabia case and said that she could not “pronounce on this” because if she spoke “they would finish it off.”
6:05 pm The van arrives at the place of death
After 6:00 in the afternoon, the truck in which Colonel Dávila and his company police were traveling parked on Calle 22 with Carrera 48, a guarded site located in the town of Teusaquillo, in Bogotá, which is close to the Prosecutor’s Office, the US Embassy and an Army battalion (See Map)
6:13 pm Dávila called his brother to celebrate
Minutes before his death, the colonel called his brother to celebrate the appearance of the four children from Guaviare. Dávila was happy and said it was a miracle. Five minutes later, the police officer who was with him got out of the truck to buy a bottle of water.
6:17 pm Death: Suicide or Homicide?
After he was left alone, a shot ended the life of Colonel Óscar Darío Dávila. Although Minister Velásquez said that there had been two shots, he later said that it was actually one that caused two entry and exit holes. It is still uncertain whether it was a suicide or a homicide.
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