The former deputy director of the National Unit for Disaster Risk Management (UNGRD) Sneyder Pinilla is ready to collaborate with justice and contribute to clarifying the corruption scandal that arose in that entity and from where, according to his version, millionaire bribes came. for congressmen, with the approval of senior officials.
In his confession with WEEKPinilla said that his then boss Olmedo López, former director of the UNGRD, told him that the payments to the congressmen, in the midst of the discussion of the Petro Government’s controversial reforms in the Legislature, were a “state policy.”
These are those involved in the corruption plot that hits the Petro Government hard.
Sandra Ortiz, presidential advisor for the regions
The official, who left her position on Friday night amid the scandal, would have been the “messenger” through which Pinilla sent 3,000 million pesos to the president of the Senate, Iván Name, in suitcases. The delivery would have been made days before the regional and local elections of October 29, 2023. Pinilla revealed to WEEK that the person who served as Name’s “messenger” was Ortiz. “She was the messenger, that is why she is important in the process,” said the former deputy director of the UNGRD. And he specified: “Dr. Sandra was only the messenger for the issue of Name, for nothing else.”
Iván Name, president of the Senate
According to Pinilla’s testimony to WEEK, there were key meetings in 2023 to activate the Petro Government’s bribery machine in Congress. In that sense, he maintained that 3,000 million pesos were given to the president of the Senate, Iván Name. The money came from the controversial tank truck contract to bring water to the poorest in La Guajira, for 46,000 million pesos.
“Around September 25, the director (Olmedo López) tells me: ‘Sneyder, I’m leaving for breakfast, the time has come that I told you about.’ I said, ‘Okay, done. Yes, sir, I await what you tell me.’ I know that he has breakfast at the Tequendama Suites with Dr. Sandra Ortiz and the president of the Senate, Dr. Iván Name (…). When he comes out, he tells me: ‘Sneyder, indeed, I need 3,000 million pesos that I have to give to the president (Name),’ Pinilla revealed. The money for Name was delivered, according to Pinilla, by Sandra Ortiz, at that time presidential advisor for the regions.
Andrés Calle, president of the Chamber
Pinilla maintained that he personally delivered 1,000 million pesos to Andrés Calle, president of the Chamber. And that he took them directly to Calle’s apartment, in Montería.
“They give the money to me in cash, and I give it in cash to the person that Dr. Name sends, and I directly give it to Dr. Calle,” Pinilla told WEEK.
“There were like two or three suitcases, in each one I put a resource. Name’s delivery was made in two days, and Montería’s (for Andrés Calle) in a single day (…). They were bills of 50,000 and 100,000, in bundles of 50 million of 50,000, and bundles of 100 million of 100,000.
“He lives in building K62, in Montería. I will never forget that, I give it to him myself. I’m waiting for his security scheme. I get to an elevator, I go up to the apartment, and I give him the money and then I leave,” Pinilla said. The money, according to his version, was delivered before the elections of October 29 of last year.
Andrés Idárraga, Secretary of Transparency of the Presidency
Likewise, in the midst of the scandal, the Secretary of Transparency of the Republic, Andrés Idárraga, came out after the defense of Olmedo López, former director of the UNGRD, requested that he be removed from the technical table that the Petro Government convened as a result of the corruption scandal. López said that Idárraga sought him out to receive mayors in the entity.
“Doctor Idárraga, you know the law and the so-called technical table (…), you must also investigate whether in your case there was influence peddling in favor of mayors, not precisely to talk about the Copa América. The president does well to give guarantees,” said lawyer José Moreno, López’s defender.
Idárraga, like Sandra Ortiz, left office this Friday night.
WEEK He learned that, in addition to Name and Calle, there are 15 other congressmen involved in this corruption plot. Furthermore, in his testimony, Pinilla spoke of the Minister of the Interior, Luis Fernando Velasco, and mentioned the ministers of Health, Finance and Mines. Another official about whom doubts fall is Carlos Ramón González, former director of Dapre, now director of Intelligence, and one of the men closest to Petro. Was he the one who gave the orders to Olmedo López to activate the bribery machine in Congress? He is one of the questions that must be resolved in this scandal.
