The political and judicial situation of the recently elected senator of the Historical Pact, Piedad Córdoba, has her on the ropes. Her messes are not only hers in Colombia, in the United States they also follow her steps in detail, and there is already talk of a possible obstruction of justice with a topic that does not stop ringing in prisons: extradition. To this is added a surprising turn that would be taking the case of Álex Saab, the considered figurehead of the Nicolás Maduro regime, who in the midst of “approaches” with the authorities of that country, would now be willing to turn on the fan against different people , including Cordoba.
SEMANA reveals unpublished details of the hurricane that today engulfs the elected senator and that even caused the top boss and presidential candidate for the Historical Pact, Gustavo Petro, to ask her to withdraw from the campaign so as not to hinder her. What is behind all this? Why the rumors about extradition? What information did Petro know that led him to make this radical and surprising decision?
The first thing that the authorities of the United States and Colombia are trying to establish is the certainty that the senator’s income to the La Picota penitentiary, in addition to visiting her brother Álvaro Córdoba Ruiz, who is also requested in extradition, were used to meet with other extraditables, to whom he allegedly offered not to be sent to the United States if Petro were elected president.
The rumor of non-extradition would have spread like wildfire, specifically in the La Picota prison pavilion of those who are in line to be sent to the United States to answer to justice for crimes related to drug trafficking.
Sources consulted by SEMANA assure that the offers would be true. They would have initially reached the well-known big capos, who had “the mission of distributing the message among their colleagues”, among them, those who are called in the world of prisons as “dog washers or small fish”.
“The country must not continue on its knees before the gringos”, “Colombia is a sovereign country”, “no to extradition”, are some of the phrases that would be echoing in a low voice in the corridors and the cells of the extraditable. At the same time, they would be talking about a strategy so that the penalties are paid here and not sent to the United States.
The idea, in order not to raise suspicions and deny it if that is the case, would be to “freeze, entangle and delay” what have been called express extraditions. These consist of those captured renouncing the terms and giving free rein so that in a short time they are taken unhindered to the United States, including the first advances in information and collaboration plan with the justice system with agents of this country in detention centers in Colombia.
The request of some big bosses, which for many came as an order, is precisely that they suspend the procedures, judicial proceedings and approaches with the authorities in Colombia and the United States, to buy time while the presidential elections take place.
Seasoned lawyers for extraditables, whose offices are in the United States, confirmed that they even had scheduled meetings to travel to Bogotá to review their files, but, surprisingly, some of these meetings were cancelled. In Colombia it happens in a similar way, lawyers also speak of “suspensions of meetings and visits with their clients and there is even talk of changes of defenders, given the strategy that is being developed.”
However, it is not a blank check, nobody talks about it in public, they make inquiries and the issue is always the same, extradition. But precisely for this reason they handle it confidentially, because they also have to evaluate the scenario in which Petro loses the elections, and not spoil the progress they have made with the United States justice system.
The reserve with which the plan was supposedly being handled to put extradition in check has been breaking down, precisely because of those who were recently sent to prisons in the United States and were aware of the proposal. They ended, in the midst of their collaboration to obtain benefits, telling details of these alleged meetings of Piedad Córdoba in prison.
Although the senator has denied the accusations and assures that she has only gone to jail to visit her brother Álvaro Córdoba Ruiz, SEMANA revealed the evidence that would show that Piedad was lying. Less than a month before the consultations to choose candidates for the presidency and elections to Congress, he would have met with Juan Carlos Cuesta Córdoba, alias Gordo Rufla, which is proven by the authorization ticket to enter the prison, dated 19 February, to meet this dangerous member of the Clan del Golfo requested in extradition (see facsimile).
This meeting is proven, but others that would have occurred in the shadow of the visits to his brother in La Picota, added to the accusations of the recently extradited, have the United States on alert. Therefore, we would be talking about a possible crime of obstruction of justice on the part of Córdoba, since it is clear that one of the main strategies of this country in the fight against drug trafficking is to make drug traffickers pay in their prisons, and any interference is considered a serious crime. It would be an interference in the actions of a United States judge, because after the capture for extradition purposes they are immediately under the order and investigation of the justice of that country.
The elected senator has not remained silent, she reiterated that she did not make this type of offer and pointed out, “as is public knowledge, my brother Álvaro is deprived of his liberty for extradition purposes due to an entrapment action orchestrated by agents of the DEA to affect the electoral campaign of the Historical Pact, as Gustavo Petro himself has denounced.”
The defense of Álvaro Córdoba Ruiz, headed by Antonio Güette, who has also denied the offers, has stated that his visits have been in his role as lawyer. In the same vein, some drug traffickers requested for extradition and their lawyers have come out to deny these offers. Despite this, the authorities for several days have been in the meticulous task of deciphering if a secret pact would be taking place in La Picota.
The Saab-Cordoba relationship
From the moment in which the businessman Álex Saab, considered the figurehead of the Nicolás Maduro regime, was extradited from the small African nation of Cape Verde to the United States, in October of last year, the name of Piedad Córdoba has been hanging around the investigation, for the justice of that country his closeness is known.
Although the confidentiality and defense strategy of Saab has been maintained in that he is not subject to prosecution due to his status as a diplomat of the Government of Venezuela, what is known is that in the face of a possible high sentence against Saab in the United States, they would be contemplating from now on a figure of “approaches” that exists in this country and that could become an effective collaboration and negotiation of his sentence.
As was the case more than 30 years ago, when, in the heat of the construction of the 1991 Constitution, the then extraditable commanded by Pablo Escobar assured that they preferred a tomb in Colombia than a prison in the United States, today, again, this is the issue The one that is talked about in the prisons of Colombia and the United States, the meetings have taken place, and it is proven, with one ingredient, this whole plot has Senator Piedad Córdoba behind the scenes.