International
The protagonists of the Colombian Government’s Risk Unit scandal
Two senior officials of the National Unit for Disaster Risk Management (UNGRD) have been formally accused today for a large case of corruption in which other members of the Government close to the president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, congressmen and politicians from different parties could be involved.
For the moment, the Prosecutor’s Office has accused the former director of the UNGRD Olmedo López and the deputy director for Disaster Management of the same entity Sneyder Pinilla for the crimes of conspiracy to commit aggravated crime, embezzled for aggravated appropriation, undue interest in the conclusion of contracts, ideological falsehood in a public document and falsehood in a private document.
It all began in February when the embezzlement of 46.8 billion pesos (about 11.7 million dollars) was uncovered in the purchase by the UNGRD of 40 tanker trucks to bring drinking water to desert areas of the department of La Guajira.
According to the Prosecutor’s Office, López was left with 724 million pesos (about 179,700 dollars) and Pinilla with 342 million pesos (about 85,000 dollars).
The case has been adding the names of other possible ones linked to irregular contracts and the distribution of money between politicians, events that occurred in 2023.
1. Olmedo López
Militant of the left-wing Party Alternative Democratic Pole. In the 2010 elections he was campaign director of Petro, who in April last year appointed him director of the UNGRD, a position he held until February 2024 when he resigned due to this case of corruption, since it was during his administration that the contract for the purchase of the tankers was signed.
Last Saturday, in the installation speech of the new session of Congress, Petro apologized for the corruption in the UNGRD and for having appointed López to head that entity.
2. Sneyder Pinilla
He was deputy director of the UNGRD under the direction of López and is alleged to be the one who allegedly delivered money to congressmen and members of the Government for the contracts. According to the Prosecutor’s Office, he received 1% of the budget of 100 billion pesos (24.7 million dollars) that were allocated for the purchase of the tankers.
3. Luis Eduardo López Rosero
He is the third accused by the Prosecutor’s Office for being a contractor of the carts and, according to the accusation, having received 13% of the tender. He went from being a small merchant to entering the wheel of large state contracts through three companies in his name with which he has achieved, with the UNGRD alone, more than 155 contracts totaling 160 billion pesos (about 39.6 million dollars) between 2012 and 2024, according to Noticias Caracol.
4. Sandra Ortiz
After being a congressman for several terms with the Green Party, Ortiz was appointed by Petro in May 2023 as Presidential Counselor for the Regions. It has been pointed out – but there is still no judicial accusation – of being the link between Pinilla and the then president of Congress, Iván Name, to deliver the bribes, a complaint that she rejects.
5. Ivan Name
Member of the Green Party, he was president of the Senate in the previous legislature (2023-2024). According to the allegations, part of the money embezzled in the purchase of tankers was used to pay bribes to Name and other congressmen in exchange for support in Congress for the reforms of the Petro Government. Name has rejected these accusations and has not yet received an accusation.
6. Andrés Calle
Lawyer and member of the Liberal Party, he was president of the House of Representatives in the 2023-2024 legislature. As Name, it is pointed out – but not formally accused – of having received bribes, in three days and in banknotes in briefcases, in exchange for support in Congress to promote and approve the Social Reforms of the Government. Calle has also rejected the accusations.
7. Carlos Ramón González
It is the last known name in the case. He was Petro’s right-hand man as director of the Administrative Department of the Presidency (Dapre) and is currently the head of the National Intelligence Directorate. During the hearing of accusations, the Prosecutor’s Office said that Ortiz had González’s orders, as his direct boss as director of the Dapre, to allegedly deliver the coimas. He still received a formal accusation.
8. Ricardo Bonilla
The Minister of Finance, Ricardo Bonilla, received accusations as the person who authorized the disbursement of the UNGRD budget and it was also, according to a Pinilla chat published by Noticias Caracol, who coordinated the award of three contracts for 92 billion pesos (about 23 million dollars) to benefit six congressmen in exchange for supporting the expansion of the Government’s debt quota.
Bonilla said today that she respects the work of the Prosecutor’s Office and that she is calm, waiting for her “opportunity before justice” to defend herself.
International
Indigenous candidate Leonidas Iza predicts a new social explosion if there is no change in Ecuador
The presidential candidate of Ecuador for the indigenous movement, Leonidas Iza, who was part of the wave of protests of 2019 and who led that of 2022, reveals himself as an “anti-system” politician in the face of “a corrupt system” that he intends to reformulate to relieve the impoverished, because he predicts a new social explosion if there is no change in the Government to meet popular demands.
Iza, 42, is the candidate of Pachakutik, the political arm of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (Conaie) that he himself presides over, and with which he was at the forefront of the 2022 wave of protests against the government of conservative President Guillermo Lasso, where he was arrested and even labeled a “terrorist.”
“I am one of those who has never lost the ability to be outraged when governments have had policies against their own citizens,” Iza, a native of the Andean province of Cotopaxi, said in an interview with EFE.
“I am not against the private sector, I am against those who do not pay taxes and those who come to the Government only to defend their companies,” said the candidate in reference to the last two presidents (Lasso and Daniel Noboa).
“We fight for social justice, not to be violent. It is a reaction to the injustice to which we have been subjected,” he said.
For Iza, who represents the anti-extractivist left of Ecuador, the country has “a corrupt system, a health system that does not work, a deficient and unfair economic system, and public services that are not helping citizens.”
“And that’s what we want to change. We won’t be able to do it overnight, but the State can give relief to the people,” the candidate said.
To do this, it proposes to fight against tax evasion, which amounts to about 7.5 billion dollars a year, and also against corruption, which is estimated at about 3 billion dollars per year, to balance public accounts without having to follow the current credit program with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that asks to cut public spending and raise taxes.
He also aimed to increase agricultural productivity, as well as boost tourism to go from 1 to 3 million visitors a year, and anticipated that he will regulate small and artisanal mining to avoid illegal mining but will not allow large-scale mining because it considers that it can contaminate the country’s large river basins.
Iza anticipated that he will not pay the external debt as long as there are “guaguas (children, in Kichwa) who have no education and are dying of hunger, and colleagues who are dying for lack of health.”
“We will tell the IMF and the other multilaterals that we are going to pay, but first we are going to solve the structural problem we have at the moment: education, health and minimum conditions for security,” he warned.
In that sense, Iza pointed out that “the strength of a popular reaction in the streets is accumulating” that must be resolved by whoever is elected. “Knowing my country, which has been on the streets all its life, there will be a popular reaction if (the discomfort) is not resolved in the following months,” he reiterated.
“The option that understands the people is us, and not the sectors that have always been in the Government,” said Iza, who avoided pointing out whether that reaction will reach the dimensions of the strong protests of 2019 and 2022, both led by the indigenous movement.
In this electoral campaign, Iza has left his distinctive Andean red poncho to put on the bulletproof vest in the face of the persistent wave of violence of organized crime that the country is experiencing, because he warned that the “war” that Noboa declared to the criminal gangs has not worked because its leaders are still free.
Faced with this, he promised “a hard hand for all” and recalled that “state institutions must suffocate everyone (criminals)”.
The candidate also advocated deepening international cooperation: “there must be a responsibility of all countries (producers, consumers and drug transit), especially in the region (of Latin America)”.
Asked if Ecuadorian society is ready to have an indigenous president of rural origin, Iza sees himself with popular support to face “the most reactionary sectors that have support in racism and stigmatization.”
International
Deaths in a hotel fire in a ski resort in Turkey rise to 69
The fire that occurred this morning in a 12-story hotel in a ski resort in northwestern Turkey claimed at least 69 deaths, in addition to causing fifty injuries, according to the latest assessment of the country’s authorities.
The fire originated around 3.30 a.m. local time (0.30 GMT) in a hotel, built entirely of wood, in the Kartalkaya ski center, halfway between Istanbul and Ankara, with almost full occupancy.
The flames were extinguished after about ten hours of firefighters’ work and the authorities found the death of 66 people, in addition to rescuing 51 injured, compared to the 10 dead and 32 injured initially estimated.
The hotel, with 161 rooms, had an occupancy close to 90%, because these days are the winter school holidays in Turkey, says the Turkish newspaper Hürriyet.
The wooden construction and the location of the hotel at the foot of a ski slope, which only allows vehicle access from the front facade, made the intervention of firefighters difficult, the Turkish newspaper explained.
According to the television network NTV, about 300 people, including employees, were in the hotel at the time of the fire, the causes of which are still unknown.
International
Hamas calls for counterattack on Israeli soldiers during their incursion in the West Bank
The Islamist organization Hamas urged the Palestinians on Tuesday to intensify and support their militiamen in the clashes against the Israeli Army during the military incursion that began today in Yenin, in the north of the occupied West Bank.
“We call on the masses of our people in the West Bank and their revolutionary youth to mobilize and intensify the clashes against the (Israeli) occupation army at all points, and to work to thwart the extensive Zionist aggression against the city of Yenin.”
“This military operation launched by the occupation in Yenin will fail, as did all its previous military operations against our brave people and their tenacious resistance,” the Palestinian group said.
Since the beginning of the operation, nicknamed by the Army “Iron Wall”, at least seven Palestinians have died in Yenin and another 35 have been injured, according to data from the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
Hamas accused the forces of the Palestinian National Authority (ANP), President Mahmoud Abbas’ ruling party in the West Bank, of having left Yenin to allow the operation of Israeli troops, instead of defending the Palestinians.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defended on Tuesday that the last assault launched by his forces against Yenin, in the north of the occupied West Bank, seeks to “eradicate terrorism.”
“This is another step towards the objective we have set ourselves: to strengthen security in Judea and Samaria (West Bank),” according to a statement released by its Office.
“We are acting systematically and decisively against the Iranian axis wherever it sends its weapons: in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, Judea and Samaria (West Bank),” concludes the Israeli president’s note.
The rail comes shortly after the start of the ceasefire in Gaza, which includes a weekly exchange of hostages in the Strip for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons.
Following the release of the prisoners, the Army increased its presence in this occupied territory with seven companies, claiming to strengthen its “anti-terrorist efforts.”
The images recorded in Yenin show dozens of Army vehicles accessing the local refugee camp, which has also been bombed by Israeli aviation.
The incursions and attacks of Israeli forces in Yenin, considered a bastion of Islamist-like militias, were already constant but they worsened after the Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023.
However, since mid-December it has been the security forces of the Palestinian National Authority (ANP), which governs small parts of the West Bank, that have led an offensive in this population, which until last Friday triggered armed fighting against the militiamen.
This exchange of fire has caused at least 15 people dead on both sides, including two minors.
The occupied West Bank is experiencing its greatest spiral of violence since the Second Intifada (2000-05), and in 2024 at least 491 Palestinians have died in the territory by Israeli fire, most of them militiamen from refugee camps, but also civilians, including at least 75 minors, according to EFE’s count.
So far this year, at least 24 Palestinians have already died in Israeli attacks, five of them minors.
Indigenous candidate Leonidas Iza predicts a new social explosion if there is no change in Ecuador
Deaths in a hotel fire in a ski resort in Turkey rise to 69
Hamas calls for counterattack on Israeli soldiers during their incursion in the West Bank
Tec de Monterrey honors one of its students for his contribution to nanotechnology in medicine
Defense Minister commends salvadoran soldier for Central American Cross Country victory
Ecuador prison riot leaves at least 43 dead
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