04/25/2024
After announcing with great fanfare his support for the “Vaca por Antioquia” launched by the Government to complete the works on the 4G roads in the department, three Antioquian parliamentarians now they assure that They never contributed resources from their own pockets to that initiative.
The controversial turn occurred in the middle of a process that today advances in the Council of State after the admission of a claim for loss of investiture against ten congressmen, in which it is argued that they had violated the disqualification regime by joining that initiative.
You may be interested: Police surprised two men who were carrying 3,200 stems of coca on a bus in Antioquia
In the midst of the strong debate that this process has generated, this week some sections of a memorial prepared by the defense of the senators ended up leaking to public opinion. Andrés Guerra Hoyos and Esteban Quintero Cardona and the representative to the Chamber for Antioquia, John Jairo Berrío López, in which those three congressmen from the Democratic Center bench assured that the resources for that initiative they would not have left their respective bank accounts.
While Senator Esteban Quintero argued not even have an active bank account in his name where the donation had come from, the defense of Senator Andrés Guerra and Representative Berrío argued that the certificates of the donations They came from accounts different from yours.
“In the case of Dr. Esteban Quintero Cardona, this written certification is provided by Bancolombia that shows that he does not have an active account in this financial institution, therefore, it is not true that there is a voluntary contribution that comes from his personal income” , reads, for example, in one of those excerpts.
Read also: Downpours have already left thousands of victims in Urabá and Urrao in a state of emergency
“In the case of Dr. Andrés Guerra, this document provides a banking certification issued by Banco de Occidente stating that his account number with this entity is (…) and a certification issued by Bancolombia that states that this “He has a blocked account (…), therefore, it is not true that there is a voluntary contribution that comes from his money,” was reflected in the memorial, which supports a similar argument for the case of representative Berrío.
The arguments of these three parliamentarians, which according to the records of the Judicial Branch were delivered last April 18, They have generated controversy for being diametrically opposed to the public statements that many of them gave in the midst of the debate over the ‘cow’ for Antioquia, which for two months has been under fire from the president. Gustavo Petro in the midst of his confrontation with the governor Andrés Julián Rendón.
Only on March 23, Senator Andrés Guerra published, for example, a video on his social networks in which, standing next to a cow that he took to La Alpujarra and posing in front of a drone, he celebrated his contribution to it.
“We join the Cow for Antioquia, not only to demonstrate to the National Government that we are an unstoppable people, but to strengthen our ties as a region. Together, without looking at who put in more or less, we are focused on gathering the resources to achieve the goal of 1,300 kilometers of roads that will benefit Antioquia and the entire country,” the senator then published.
Continue reading: Three miners killed in Buriticá sinkholes were abandoned on the edge of the road in Urabá, Antioquia
On the side of Senator Esteban Quintero and Representative Berrío, who also made publications on their social networks, they attached even screenshots of bank transfer receipts of the donation.
“With a big heart we will achieve these roads for Colombia. This is my contribution, encourage yourself to contribute,” wrote Senator Quintero, for example, in a tweet published on March 22, accompanied by proof of the bank transaction that he now claims not to have made with his resources.
In the same sense, representative Berrío published a video during that same date exhibiting receipts of the transaction.
The defense of the three parliamentarians was used by their opponents in said process to argue that it would be an unfair move. “I do not expect procedural loyalty, but Dr. Quintero’s defense says that the congressman did not donate. In other words, the account is not his… The governor has very good family members who did not even support him directly, according to what they say,” said, for example, lawyer Carlos Mario Patiño, plaintiff in said judicial process.
Aside from this controversy, the arguments of Guerra, Quintero and Berrío also attracted attention for contrasting with the defense of other parliamentarians also immersed in the process, who, instead of denying the donations, have insisted that the lawsuit would invoke an erroneous cause for loss of investiture (by confusing the conclusion of a contract with a public entity with a donation) or that congressmen can carry out government actions to safeguard the needs of the voters of their constituencies.
To find out their version on the subject, EL COLOMBIANO contacted the three congressmen, but As of the closing of this edition, there was no response.
