Petro attacks Fecode case

2024-01-31 12:19:14

President Gustavo Petro did not sit idly by in the face of the recent intervention of the Prosecutor’s Office to the Colombian Federation of Education Workers (Fecode) and pointed out other presidential campaigns that have received contributions, but that the investigating entity has not even thought about. raids.

The new dispute arose because the Attorney General’s Office prepared an inspection of the Fecode offices after learning about a donation of 500 million pesos to Colombia Humana, in supposed support for the Petro Presidente campaign in 2022.

Given this action, the president published a case about donations on his X account that, he said, caught his attention. And, according to Petro, Iván Duque’s presidential campaign in 2018 would have received a donation of 560 million pesos, under the concept of a donation to the Democratic Center.

This donation would have been made by the real estate company CMB SAS, however, as Petro pointed out, the Prosecutor’s Office and the National Electoral Council did not order raids at the time of the offices of said organization. And much less were criminal proceedings ordered, which for Petro is a clear action of double standards, since the opposite has happened with his campaign.

“They never raided it, nor did they initiate criminal proceedings. The National Electoral Council determined that the act was legal. The same does not happen to us. They raided the teachers’ union because it donated, according to the minutes, 500 million to the Colombia Humana party, and for this reason they initiated criminal proceedings without the CNE’s support,” he explained.

Likewise, the president explained that initially that donation was made directly to Duque’s campaign, but it is illegal due to the amount, so they later directed the donation to the Democratic Center party, which allows this type of donations. That same figure of donating to the party was the one that Fecode used to donate to Colombia Humana, therefore, according to Petro, there is nothing illegal.

“The real estate company CMB SAS donated 560 million to Duque’s campaign, according to the signed document. Something that was prohibited. Given the fact, they decided to change the donation to the Democratic Center party, a fact that is legal,” said the president.

For Petro, what is happening right now with the investigations into donations to his campaign is “a political persecution carried out by Duque’s officials who control the prosecutor’s office.”

In this regard, the one who was general secretary of the Presidency during the Duque period, Victor Muñóz, responded to President Petro and refuted his allegations by citing the 2018 campaign manager, Luis Guillermo Echeverri.

“In the second round, NO contributions were received, neither from people nor from companies, everything was financed with the legal advance and credits at market rates. In the first round, only contributions were received from natural persons and in no case did they exceed 80 million pesos,” explained Muñóz.

Likewise, he pointed out that when reviewing the contributions allowed by the CNE, no donation by individuals or companies exceeded 50 million pesos.

“Innumerable reviews have been made, including those by CNE, of the campaign accounts and as supported and demonstrated, all campaign accounts were in order,” Muñóz concluded.