the ABC of the scandal that shakes the Government

The theft of a briefcase with thousands of dollars, illegal wiretapping, alleged manipulation and abuse of power. In the style of the political drama ‘House of Cards’, The government of Colombian President Gustavo Petro has been shaken by a scandal against which the president is taking his first steps: the dismissal of two senior officials from his closest circle.

His right hand and until now chief of staff, Laura Sarabiaand the until today ambassador of Colombia in Caracas, Armando BenedettiThey were removed from their posts.

The decision comes one day after the Office of the Attorney General of the Nation announced that it had opened an investigation to find those responsible for the illegal interceptions of the phones of two domestic workers from Sarabia, after the official pointed them out as suspects of a robbery. in your home.

The interceptions would have taken place after being falsely involved with the Clan del Golfo drug trafficking group. All in order to obtain authorization from a judge to intervene their phones.

A case that puts the magnifying glass on the first left-wing government in Colombia that promised changes and to eliminate the denounced “chuzadas”, as this type of practice is known in Colombia, which were controversial during the Administration of the right-wing Álvaro Uribe and of which, the then opposition leader and now president was even targeted.

Below are the lines of investigation and keys to the case:

1. The theft of a briefcase with thousands of dollars

The sequence of events worthy of a fiction series arose from last January 29.

That day, Sarabia filed a lawsuit with the Prosecutor’s Office for the theft of a briefcase with $7,000 in cash from your homemoney that he assured corresponded to travel expenses.

However, the amount could have been higher and both the amount and the origin of the resources are also a matter of investigation.

According to the version of Marbelys Meza, Sarabia’s nanny at the time and one of the women whose phone was intercepted, in an interview with the Colombian magazine ‘Week’, her employer accused her of the theft of 150 million pesos. That is, around $21,000.

Meza’s statement about the missing amount was supported by the then Colombian ambassador to Venezuela, Armando Benedetti, Sarabia’s political godfather, but with whom he has subsequently had several confrontations. The official published a series of messages on his Twitter account in which he pointed out that nothing justified the official having “150 million pesos in a suitcase.”

2. The complaint of a polygraph test in a basement of the presidential house

Marbelys Meza maintains that on January 30, one day after the robbery, police officers forced her to go to the Casa de Nariño, the presidential residence, after they picked her up at her home.

There, in one of her basements, Meza says, she was subjected to a polygraph test for about three hours, amid intimidation and frontal accusations against her, despite the fact that she repeated that she had no relationship with the theft.

“They kept me in the polygraph until around 4 or 5 in the afternoon. Then they took my phone again. The policemen who were there with their badges told me: ‘You are a liar, you can make fun of that device, but not us. You’re not going home tonight, you’re going to jail from here, we’re going to raid all your relatives, that is, your brothers and you,’” he declared.

The woman maintains that, since then, she has felt persecuted. “When I was in the basement I felt kidnapped, dazed, drowning, waiting for them to do the polygraph. They told me that if I didn’t cooperate they were going to put me in jail and that they were going to go after my family,” Meza said.

The former employee of the head of the Colombian government cabinet maintained that she was interrogated by three men, without any court order and by order of Sarabia.

3. Eavesdropping

In the past week, more details of the case have come to light.. Just one day after Sarabia filed the lawsuit for theft, on January 30, the interceptions of the telephones of Meza and another domestic employee identified as Fabiola began, according to the Attorney General’s Office.

“Today is a very unfortunate day for the rule of law in Colombia. Today we can clearly say that the chuzadas, the illegal interceptions, have returned to Colombia,” the attorney general, Francisco Barbosa, declared at a press conference on Thursday, June 1.

According to information released by the prosecutor, as soon as the theft occurred, two police officers immediately traveled to Quibdó, the capital of the Chocó department, in western Colombia, with a false report to present it to a prosecutor who is pursuing criminal organizations.

In order to achieve irregular wiretapping, Meza was accused of being alias “the Cook” of a subject known as alias “Siopas”, who, at that time, was the head of the Clan del Golfo, one of the main drug trafficking groups in Colombia.

For her part, Fabiola was falsely profiled as alias ‘La Madrina’, whom they accused of “making money transfers (to ‘Siopas’), buying food, keeping records with information and with orders given by ‘Ómar’, second ringleader.” said the prosecutor.

However, the person in charge of monitoring alerted his superiors that the two suspects had no relationship with that criminal group.

Meza’s communications were intercepted for ten days and those of his partner for 72 hours, since a prosecutor ordered to interrupt the interventions considering that the women were only talking about personal issues without interest for Justice.

The legality of these procedures and who would have given the order are other of the main guidelines of the investigation.

The prosecutor is investigating whether Sarabia, a person fully trusted by the president with the ability to influence his decisions, abused his position and used the state intelligence apparatus to clarify the disappearance of money from his home.

4. The alleged involvement of Benedetti and Meza’s flight to Venezuela

The controversy took on a greater magnitude when the until today ambassador in Caracas intervened, Armando Benedettiwho has tried to dismiss the accusations of having created an alleged conspiracy against Sarabia through Meza.

After the scandal came to light, it was also learned that Benedetti already knew Meza. The woman worked for him and his wife for about ten months before she was hired by Sarabia to care for her child.

But Benedetti went from accuser to implicated in the scandal for allegedly helping Meza to leak the case to the press.

Although Benedetti assured that it was Sarabia who communicated to him on April 17 his concern about the alleged intention of his employee to speak to the Colombian media, it was later learned that the employee had traveled to Caracas on a private flight with Benedetti. Upon her return, Meza gave the interview to the magazine ‘Semana’.

In recent days, Benedetti suggested that the senior official was behind the illegal wiretapping, since there would be no other way for Sarabia to find out about her employee’s intentions.

“He is manipulating information and that smoke screen (…) does not justify the abuse of power, kidnapping and intimidation,” he accused.

Benedetti even hinted that the missing money would come from of a powerful transportation business group, suggesting, furthermore, irregular payments.

However, another political detail emerged from the case: Meza would also have been subjected to a polygraph test when she worked at Benedetti’s house, indicated for another alleged robbery. The accusation would establish that the official, like Sarabia, had engaged in a practice of abuse of power long before the scandal involving Petro’s former chief of staff.

5. Petro’s statements

The opening of these investigations by the Attorney General’s Office occurs in the midst of an institutional clash between President Petro and prosecutor Barbosa.

In a recent statement, Barbosa assured that the president’s peace policy had become an incentive for crime. He also accused him of having violated the rule of law, after the controversial statements by the president, who had stated that the country’s president is the chief prosecutor. Days later, the ruler rectified his pronouncement.

In the midst of the questions about the investigations of the Prosecutor’s Office about the illegal wiretapping and the alleged irregular polygraph test in an office of the presidential house, Petro was initially defiant. “Investigate all you want,” he said.

In addition, in a Twitter message, the president defended the use of polygraph tests. “They have been done for years for the security of the presidency,” he said.

In recent days, he defended his Administration from engaging in irregular practices. “Accusing the government of the change of illegal interceptions is so irresponsible. No member of the government has given any order for wiretapping, ”he wrote on the same social network.

Finally, the head of state tries to cut the institutional crisis from the root. With the two dismissals of his closest political circle, the president seeks to distance himself from a procedure that he himself was a victim of when he was in opposition, during the Administration of former President Álvaro Uribe.

However, the development of the plot continues. LThe Prosecutor’s Office has already warned that in the coming days several people involved in the case will be charged.

With AP and local media