Once these images were released, Mayor Pinedo Cuello put Samaria public opinion and the country in general in context, revealing an unprecedented detail that happened to him last year during the political campaign, when he said that ‘he was kidnapped, there was an illegal detention against my will and they took me to this Camilo,’ he stated.
In statements given to the media with which he has spoken, including TODAY DIARY OF THE MAGDALENE; Mayor Pinedo noted:
‘The men armed with rifles told me to follow them, I had no choice but to follow them. I wasn’t going to fight and get myself killed. I arrived at the place where alias ‘Camilo’ was, he greeted me, I greeted him in the midst of nervousness, then I sat down to listen to him and three people from the indigenous community, two of them women. Their desire was for me to listen to them, there petrified in a chair. Once he finished talking about the interest in adhering to Petro’s Total Peace policy, they let me go. Even my escort was disarmed, and my companions, two more people, were scared and deprived of fear due to the intimidating way in which they took us.
In the same way, Mayor Pinedo reported that after that bitter episode he concluded his visit to La Tagua and once he arrived at the urban area of Santa Marta, he proceeded to write the criminal complaint that he immediately brought, that same day, April 2, 2023, to the Attorney General’s Office where the criminal news was filed and the manifestation of what happened was incorporated into its judicial information system,’ he noted.
I’M QUIET
In such a way that ‘I am calm. It was an episode of kidnapping and illegal detention. A constraint that my enemies did not know about, nor did the citizens themselves know at the time. Due to the delicate nature of the situation, I preferred that this fact not have public significance for fear of reprisals and as always I let justice do its job, in this case the Prosecutor’s Office,’ he stated.
‘THEY GOT PREGNANT’
In his statements to journalists, Mayor Pinedo Cuello added: ‘My enemies became pregnant, as they say in popular slang, they did not know that I was already reporting this fact to the Prosecutor’s Office. And it did not happen this year as they have tried to make it appear. Nothing of that. Neither after taking office, nor recently. Corrupt liar, that happened last year, and it happened under the intimidation of guns. It was a classic kidnapping, a detention against my will, not like the kidnappings in which you participated, corrupt,’ Mayor Pinedo Cuello said in a vehement and visibly angry tone, responding to his enemies and political critics who yesterday lit up the networks after the disclosure of the photographs and without the district president’s statement revealing the episode of his retention being known.
‘I am not the friend of Los Pachencas, the friend is someone else. It is you who have taken advantage of that illegal armed group. In such a way that things are as clear as they were told to the Prosecutor’s Office at the time. There is the complaint. There are the details of that illegal detention where we were intimidated, where we were subdued, where even our phones were confiscated, and where I certainly realized that that photograph was very surely taken of me. But I told everything to the Prosecutor’s Office since last year,’ Pinedo Cuello stated.
OFFICIAL STATEMENT
In relation to the information and photographs recently released by the media “W Radio”, where it is stated that, in February 2024, in my capacity as Mayor of the District of Santa Marta, I held meetings with alias “Camilo”, leader of the self-defense groups. of the Conquerors of the Sierra Nevada, I allow myself to clarify for public opinion the context of these events.
- It is necessary to specify that, IT IS NOT TRUE that it took place in the year 2024; The reality is that it took place on April 2, 2023 in the village of La Tagua, township of Minca, rural area of the District of Santa Marta, this was against my will and under coercion of armed people, in the middle of the process of collection of signatures from the significant citizen movement “Santa Marta Sí Podemos”. Of this proselytizing activity, there are photographs from April 2, 2023 published on my personal Instagram account.
- During my visit to the Tagua village, to interact with the inhabitants and listen to their needs, a few minutes after my arrival at the place, I was approached by a member of the community, who told me that a leader wanted to talk to me. I was directed to the space that is evident in the photograph, there was a group of six or seven people, some of them carrying long-range weapons and dressed in uniforms exclusively used by the public force. When I entered, I was stripped of my cell phones, and my escort was immediately disarmed. This non-consensual encounter was intimidating, it occurred without prior agreement, and it is evident that in this situation with heavily armed men he had no other option than to listen to and greet the members of this organization.
- As can be seen in the images, they placed us under a small wooden structure where one of the people from the armed group proceeded to express his interest in embracing the total peace proposed by the national government; The conversation focused on this topic. During this meeting, I observed a young man with white skin carrying a rifle recording the meeting.
- At the end of the meeting described above, I returned to the space where I spoke with the community and continued developing the activities for which I came to that space, which was to speak to the community, listen to their needs and concerns.
- As proof of the above, but mainly, as a measure of protection for my life and my family, on April 4, 2023, I informed the Attorney General’s Office of the illegal constraint and possible kidnapping of which I was a victim. be taken to that place. This complaint was received by the Prosecutor’s Office with the number of Orfeo: 20230230012905 and that today it is in active status and assigned to Prosecutor’s Office 12 in the Life Section; for the consultation of any person or media under filing No. 470016099369202311033, April 4, 2023.
- In the complaint that was immediately presented to the armed coercion and illegal detention, possible kidnapping that I suffered, the reserved handling of the matter was requested, to protect my integrity, that of my family and that of all the members of the campaign, given the delicate security situation. Likewise, I requested an exhaustive investigation into the presence of groups outside the law in the rural area of Santa Marta.
- It is important to remember that I was the first local authority to celebrate and congratulate the public force for the recent captures of alias “Camilo”, alias “Muñeca” and alias “El Menor”, recognizing their constant effort in maintaining our security and dismantling the Conquering Self-Defense Forces of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta.
I have always acted under the protection of the law, and the development of my political career has been through constitutional and legal means. Other local actors have used the illegal weapons of these groups to constrain the rural area and win the 2019 territorial elections. The above is an issue discussed and recognized by the leaders of these groups that operate outside the Law. .
To the Samaria community, peace of mind, we will continue working, we will continue advancing and we will continue transforming the city.
Sincerely,
Carlos Alberto Pinedo Cuello
District Mayor of Santa Marta.
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