Police arrested the bodyguard of Jaime Luis Lacouture, the secretary of Colombia’s House of Representatives, after finding he was found transporting election propaganda and more than $38,000 in cash.
The bodyguard, Luis Alfredo Acuña, was arrested on Tuesday morning outside of Hatonuevo, a town in the northern La Guajira province, according to the police.
The police confiscated the money and propaganda posters of Conservative Party Senate candidate Daniel Restrepo, who is reportedly the prospected successor of the outgoing conservative Senator Carlos Trujillo.
Authorities arrested Acuña on the suspicion the money was meant to buy votes for Restrepo, a claim denied by the bodyguard’s top-notch lawyer, Ivan Cancino.
According to General William Rincon, the director of the National Police, “the funds were divided in seven envelopes, marked with the names of two municipalities and a district, which would indicate a possible structure for the commission of electoral crimes.”
At the indictment hearing, Acuña claimed that the money was meant to purchase a car and had nothing to do with the election posters in his car.
The judge presiding the hearing accepted this explanation, and ordered the police to release Acuña and return the money.
In a response, President Gustavo Petro said on social media platform X that “the National Police has the president’s order to arrest vote-buyers and bring them before the prosecution for electoral crimes.”
“Vote-buying allows criminals to capture the State,” stressed the president, who has dedicated much of his political career to fighting political corruption.
Inspector General Gregorio Eljach told press that his office opened 38 disciplinary investigations into officials allegedly abusing their position to benefit the political ambitions of their friends and family.
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