The mayor of a central Colombian town was sworn in while behind bars, bringing the total of newly inaugurated mayors in jail to three.
Henry Amando Suarez from the small town of Santana, Boyaca, was sworn in despite his incarceration and being sentenced by the country’s Inspector General’s Office for swindle.
The third known case of a mayor running his town from jail is causing increasing embarrassment for national authorities and political parties who claimed to have purged their 2011 election candidacy lists of criminal candidates.
Additionally, local media reported that two officials from the Quindio department — one council member and one deputy — were also sworn in while behind bars.
The growing scandal broke when Colombia’s prison authority reported that two mayors from the northern Cordoba debartment had been inaugurated while awaiting murder and parapolitics charges.