Colombian prosecutors charge 2 ex-Cabinet members of bribing lawmakers for their votes
Advertisement
Read this article for free:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Digital Subscription
One year of digital access for only $205*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*First annual payment billed as $205.00 + GST for one year. This annual subscription will automatically renew at $233.00 + GST every 52 weeks (10% off the regular annual price of $259.35). Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional
$1 for the first 4 weeks*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*Your next Brandon Sun subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $17.95 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $24.95 plus GST every four weeks.
Read unlimited articles for free today:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 01/12/2025 (264 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Prosecutors in Colombia on Monday charged two former members of President Gustavo Petro’s government with corruption for their alleged role in a congressional vote buying scheme.
Colombian authorities have launched a spate of corruption proceedings. The former heads of Colombia’s senate and house of representatives have also been arrested in connection to the vote buying scheme, after they were accused of receiving bribes from Petro’s administration.
According to the prosecutors, former Finance Minister Ricardo Bonilla and former Interior Minister Luis Fernando Velasco conspired with officials in two agencies to steer public funds towards companies linked to members of congress and their allies.
In exchange for contracts worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, the members of congress voted in favor of legislation backed by Petro’s government, such as a reform of the nation’s pension system, prosecutors said.
The two former ministers were charged with criminal association, bribery and undue conflict of interests in contracting, and face up to 27 years in prison if convicted.
Bonilla and Velasco have denied wrongdoing.
Petro has described the proceedings against his former ministers as part of a plan to destabilize his government.
“I have the certainty that I have not committed any crime” Bonilla said during the hearing in Bogota, the country’s capital. The 75-year-old economist is a long-time Petro adviser and was finance minister for 18 months, until he resigned last year amid allegations he had been one of the key players in the vote buying scheme.
The prosecutors say that most of the funds that were steered towards members of congress and their allies belonged to a national agency in charge of disaster prevention, whose former director is also facing criminal charges.