The Attorney General’s Office will charge and request jail for the former ministers Ricardo Bonilla and Luis Fernando Velascofor his alleged participation in the scandal of the UNGRD. With his call to respond to the Superior Court of Bogotáthere are six former high-ranking Petro government officials involved in this corrupt network.
The prosecuting body announced this Wednesday that the crimes to be read to you in the coming days – once the date of indictment and request for a security measure are scheduled – are aggravated conspiracy to commit a crime, undue interest in entering into contracts and bribery for giving or offering.
“The team of prosecutors delegated to the Supreme Court of Justice that directs the macro investigation into the acts of corruption in the UNGRD has just filed, before the Superior Court of Bogotá, request for indictment hearings and security measure against former ministers of the Treasury, Ricardo Bonilla González; and of the Interior, Luis Fernando Velasco”, was the official message from the Prosecutor’s Office.
In dialogue with EL TIEMPO, Velasco stated that he is attentive to any call from justicewhile Bonilla spoke this Wednesday along the same lines through his defense, headed by lawyer Mauricio Pava.
Ricardo Bonilla left the Ministry of Finance in December 2024. Photo:Treasury
Bonilla’s accusation had already been publicly sung by the Prosecutor’s Office for a year and a half, but not that of Velasco, who was summoned a couple of months ago to a roots procedure to collect basic information about your identity and residence. That, according to jurists, is the step prior to the call for charges.
What the UNGRD file has against these two men is that They would have participated in meetings in 2023 in which it was planned to benefit congressmen at the point of hiringin exchange for having indicative quotas approved in the economic commissions of the Legislature.
Former Minister of the Interior, Luis Fernando Velasco. Photo:Milton Diaz / El Tiempo
The accusations against Velasco are based on the fact that as head of the Ministry of the Interior he would have participated in contracts with irregularities at the hands of Olmedo López and Sneyder Pinilla at the UNGRD. One of those agreements took place in Sahagún, Córdoba, and would have the interests of Congressman Julio Elías Chagüi behind it.
“On December 4, 2023, you, Mr. Olmedo López, met with the then Minister of the Interior, Luis Fernando Velasco, who asked him to direct contracts within the Unit to favor congressman Julio Elías Chagüi Flórezfor an approximate value of 35,000 million pesos. The senator would tell him where and with whom he would execute them,” the Prosecutor’s Office revealed in a hearing against López.
María Cristina Patiño, prosecutor in charge of the UNGRD case. Photo:Private File
This address would have been given with the WhatsApp number that the former minister gave to Lópezwho according to the Prosecutor’s Office then went to meet with the congressman in December 2023 at the Tequendama hotel. Apparently, Chagüi warned that the hiring had to be done by the UNGRD because it had not been possible with Invías.
“In development of the criminal plan, On that same date, Senator Chagüi sent Jorge González’s contact via WhatsApp to Pinilla Álvarez.official of the mayor’s office of Sahagún, with whom you, Mr. Sneyder Pinilla, established communication in order to advance the procedures related to the project,” added the Prosecutor’s Office.
Bunker of the Attorney General’s Office. Photo:Weather Archive
For his part, the former minister Ricardo Bonilla He would have promoted three UNGRD projects with congressmen like Karen Manrique irregularly. The amount of the agreements that were not signed was for 92,000 million pesos, to be invested in Cotorra, Saravena and El Carmen de Bolívar. For that chapter, there are already six people on trial in the Supreme Court.
With Bonilla and Velasco are six former high-ranking officials of the government of President Gustavo Petro prosecuted for this corrupt network with which the State was embezzled. The detainees have already been charged Olmedo López and Sandra Ortiz, and the fugitives Carlos Ramón González and César Manrique.
Carlos López – Justice – @CarlosL49 – carben@eltiempo.com
