“It’s money from a consultancy.” This is how the elected senator of the Historical Pact Piedad Córdoba responded when EL COLOMBIANO asked her about the origin of the more than 60,000 dollars that she had in cash inside her suitcase when boarding a plane from Honduras to Colombia.
“I myself was the one who took out the money to pay the exit tax, and at customs a boy there, who was very left over, said that I had to count it all, and well, what was I going to argue about? We came to count the money, they counted it, but no one has held me back, at all, and I have not had any problem with that, “Córdoba told this newspaper.
These words of the elected congresswoman are given shortly after it was confirmed that she was required by the Honduran authorities to explain why he was carrying that money in cash, some 267 million Colombian pesosjust as he was about to board a plane at the Palmerola airport, located in Comayagua and serving the city of Tegucigalpa, capital of Honduras.
The first version said that when the elected congresswoman went through the x-ray control was that the money was detected between her luggage and that is why she was required to explain its origin, but Córdoba assured this newspaper that it was she herself who showed that she was carrying the nearly 68,000 dollars in cash.
“That was a silver that I was paid by one of the people I work with, Mauricio Sánchez, who can corroborate that it was so. (…) They didn’t take it from me, I had the money when I was going to pay customs,” Córdoba emphasized from Honduras.
However, on Wednesday night, the National Institute of Migration of Honduras, confirmed the request on Piedad Córdoba and warned that the money had not been declared, so the Prosecutor’s Office of that country must take part in the case.
“She has been provisionally held for investigation by the carrying of approximately 68,000 US dollars, which were not declared and that, according to what was stated, they belong to a Colombian businessman who resides in the city of Tegucigalpa, who is being summoned by the Honduran State Prosecutor’s Office to give his statement and follow the corresponding legal procedure,” reads the statement. pronouncement of the Honduran entity.
When EL COLOMBIANO asked Piedad Córdoba about this advice and why she supposedly had not declared herself, the congresswoman-elect replied that she did follow the legally established steps and that Mauricio Sánchez is the Colombian that she reported had paid her and that is who they mention in the official pronouncement.
“I advise them on issues that have to do with investment and drafting of projectsbut there is no problem, It is a work consultancy that I have with them A while ago. Here they have their work headquarters”, specified the elected legislator.
During her stay in Tegucigalpa, according to the local press, Piedad Córdoba had, among others, an appointment with the president of Honduras, Xiomara Castro, with whom the left returned to power in that Central American country.
Córdoba has been immersed in various judicial controversies in Colombia due to a process that revived him in the Supreme Court of Justice for his alleged connections with the extinct FARC guerrilla and for the extradition request that the United States made on his brother for drug trafficking. Álvaro, today imprisoned in Bogotá and pending the formalization of his shipment to a prison in US territory.
Also, has been punctuated by the scandal of the noted figurehead of the Nicolás Maduro regime, Álex Saab from Barranquilla, who was extradited to the United States for money laundering and who has been said to have allegedly illicit business with Piedad Córdoba. Even in Washington, it is analyzed whether or not to proceed with a judicial request on it.
In fact, these controversies resulted in the candidate of the Historical Pact, Gustavo Petro, removing her from his campaign until his legal problems are resolved. In this context, the same applicant said in a recent debate that if an extradition request was formalized for Córdoba, he would sign it and proceed with her execution.
In any case, and despite the fact that Piedad Córdoba was still in Honduras on Wednesday night –her itinerary back to Bogotá had a previous stopover in Panama City–, the elected congresswoman assured this newspaper that I had already resolved the impasse. But from what the Honduran authorities have said, it seems that this is not entirely true.