The PIN party, controversial in Colombia for its close ties to “dirty” politicians and drug lords, asked to be officially included in the Congress majority coalition of President Juan Manuel Santos.
According to PIN Senator Mauricio Aguilar, who is the son of a governor investigated for ties to paramilitary death squads, his party’s lawmakers met with Interior Minister German Vargas Lleras and asked to be “recognized as allies of the government” and be given “space within the pact of national unity.”
The PIN has been “loyal” to Santos and “supported him in the first and second presidential [election] rounds,” Aguilar said.
“We don’t want them to attend us through the back door,” the senator said. “It’s time they admit us to the government’s coalition as members.”
The PIN (Party of National Integration) received 10% of the vote in the March congressional elections, but have been kept out the coalition by Santos because of their ties to politicians under criminal investigation, and ongoing allegations of vote-buying.