The 19 bundles of dollars, some bills of lempiras (Honduran currency), bolívares and 5,000 Colombian pesos stood out in the green leather bag, for which the Honduran police detained Piedad Córdoba.
One of the X-ray machines, located in the international dock of the Palmerola airport, detected them. and a rookie security officer He followed the owner of the luggage to the tax payment counter so that she could explain its origin.
She turned out to be the senator-elect of the Historical Pactwho warned from the outset that she was not willing to be dropped off by the flight that was going to take her from Honduras to Panama, with a connection to Colombia.
Piedad Córdoba’s response to the Honduran police
He told the Immigration officials that the trip, from the Copa airline (which assigned him seat 8B), was scheduled for 6:33 p.m. on that Wednesday, May 25; and the connection, at 20:07.
But not only did the plane leave her. The congresswoman-elect now has an open investigation in Honduras, which may lead to possible money laundering and which joins the investigations that follow her in Colombia for allegedly raising money, alleged links with the FARC and receiving commissions linked to the regime. Venezuelan.
Photo: Authorities
Versions found?
This episode also led to the review of others about their trips abroad, where documents show that they were sponsored by a third country.
In the case of Honduras, in statements to the media, Córdoba played down the importance of the search, which he attributed to a “very leftover boy” who demanded that he count all the money that was in the green bag: 68,000 dollars.
But, from that Wednesday night until Friday, around 5:00 pm, Piedad Córdoba was officially held administratively by the Honduran Financial Police, after the Migration Institute ruled that the version on the origin of the cash it was not satisfactory.
The record of the case
In addition, according to the record that was drawn up, Córdoba knew that he could only withdraw the equivalent of 10,000 dollars, and omitted the declaration of the rest of the money.
The document also indicates that he had initially said that the dollars were his and then attributed them to the payment of financial advice that he had provided to a Colombian businessman named Mauricio Sánchez, a resident of Tegucigalpa.
The officials were struck by the fact that it was a labor matter because in a statement from the Honduran Presidency it was said that the purpose of Mrs. Córdoba’s visit was to “participate in activities of various women’s and human rights organizations.”
In addition, Córdoba was at the presidential palace on Tuesday, May 24, at 7:14 p.m., greeting her friend Xiomara Castro, who had been in power for 100 days. At her meeting with the president of Honduras – whom Gustavo Petro congratulated when she won and described her as progressive – the Colombian senator arrived with the same green bag from the airport.
Photo: Twitter: @villanuevasemma
The senator’s closeness to President Castro, whose inauguration she attended, and the dollar episode led the Honduran National Party caucus to request that the issue of silver be investigated, and they even mentioned Petro in the plot.
“That it be established if “the government is financing the campaign of the leftist Gustavo Petro with money from the Honduran people,” they pointed out.
And they added: “If the Libre government and its Alliance have nothing to do with this crime, then they should not obstruct or distort the independent investigations of the Public Ministry so that the senator is investigated and this evident case of corruption is clarified.”
What’s next now?
In their statement they added that Córdoba was caught red-handed.
In the midst of the investigation for alleged money laundering, Time established that the businessman Sánchez will be summoned in the coming days to the Prosecutor’s Office to establish his full identity, his situation in Honduras and contrast his version with that of the 68-year-old senator.
In addition, Honduran authorities are going to officially ask their peers in Colombia about the background of some people that the senator of the Historical Pact mentioned in her different versions. Local media reported that Córdoba arrived in Honduras in the company of Professor Francisco Toloza, a member of the Comunes party.
The concrete thing is that although Piedad Córdoba said that she had not been detained, the Vice Minister of Security, Semma Villanueva, went on Thursday afternoon to a Honduran Police headquarters to take a medical exam.
In addition, Honduran authorities assured that she was subjected to an interrogation of about two hours in one of the offices of the headquarters of the Special Prosecutor’s Office against Organized Crime (Fescco) of Honduras.
Photo: Screenshot
The wheelchair
On Thursday, the National Migration Institute announced that the senator-elect was no longer being held and was free to move. And on Friday she arrived on the Copa flight at 8 at night to Colombia, coming from Panama, according to her, to exercise her right to vote. But without the dollars.
But the investigation in Honduras is still open. In fact, investigators told EL TIEMPO that it is not the first time that Córdoba has been immersed in a case related to its migratory movements.
Indeed, they recalled that in September 2021 he entered Colombia from Venezuela without leaving a record. On that occasion, Córdoba was transferred in a wheelchair by two men and at the moment in which she had to comply with the migratory registry, she ignored it and got into a truck with FYX-972 plates, in which her security group was waiting for her. .
That day his luggage was not seized nor his passport stamped. Migration Colombia opened an administrative procedure for him despite the fact that Córdoba said that he arrived in Colombia through a humanitarian corridor. At that time it was established that he had traveled from Bogotá to the island of Dominica. And then he ended up in Caracas.
Photo: THE TIME
the other flights
The same sources indicated that in one of the files linked to the senator of the Historical Pact there is a document that proves that Córdoba has moved abroad with the sponsorship of the Venezuelan dictatorship.
The document is from 2009, and in it the Government of Venezuela records payments for travel and meetings. “This is the FARA (Foreign Agents Registration Act). It is incontrovertible,” said the researcher.
Córdoba has always been emphatic that it was about its humanitarian and peace role.
In any case, the candidate Gustavo Petro described her conduct in Honduras as irrational and recalled that he had separated her from his campaign so that she would first fix the pending issues.
Senator Córdoba, for her part, stated that the persecution against her continued. In addition, that the impasse had been clarified.
Photo: Private Affair
The defense of Piedad Córdoba
“I especially thank Vice President Marta Lucía Ramírez and Consul Michel Carrillo for their support and attention in this impasse (…) Thank you Colombia and our America for so much solidarity. The persecution does not stop but the truth prevails. Overcome the misunderstanding in Honduras”. With those words, Córdoba notified that he was already on his way to Colombia.
In addition, he thanked the authorities of the brotherly Honduran people “for the due process for the legal procedures of the case and its timely resolution.”
The senator is clear that she did not act irregularly and that she was going to declare even all the cash she was carrying in her hand luggage. In addition, that the businessman Mauricio Sánchez will be able to attest to the lawful origin of the funds.
Foreign Minister Ramírez warned that she did nothing for which Córdoba should be thankful. And she added that she was given the attention that is given to any compatriot.
I have done nothing to @piedadcordoba should thank. Our consul in Tegucigalpa gave him the attention that is given to any national, which is a legal function of the @CancilleriaCol and not a personal favor. https://t.co/nvYfk90h66
– Marta Lucía Ramírez (@mluciaramirez) May 27, 2022