Colombia’s Prosecutor General’s Office on Monday announced to open 13 more criminal investigations against businessmen, politicians and former city officials over a public works corruption scandal that has the capital’s former mayor in jail.
Among the new suspects are coalition Senator Efrain Torrado (U Party) and former city council member Carlos Romero, the husband of presidential candidate Clara Lopez.
The full list of new suspects is as following:
- Efrain Torrado (senator)
- Wilson Duarte (former council member)
- Andres Camacho (former council member)
- Orlando Parada (former council member)
- Hipolito Moreno (former council member)
- Carlos Romero (former council member)
- Dario Fernando Cepeda (council member)
- Yuri Chillan (former mayor’s chief of staff)
- Jorge Enrique Pizano (former water management chief)
- Mauricio Solano (former security official)
- Fernando Alvarez (former transport secretary)
- Javier Mejia (contractor)
- Andres Cardona (contractor)
Following the announcement of the new investigations, Romero sent a letter to Prosecutor General Eduardo Montealegre in which the presidential candidate’s husband demanded a speedy trial and claimed he was the victim of a conspiracy that sought to discredit his wife’s candidacy.
Lopez, who assumed the Mayor’s Office after former Mayor Samuel Moreno was forced to resign over the multi-million-dollar scandal, told press she would not make statements about her husband’s criminal investigation.
According to investigators, corrupt politicians received kickbacks for awarding public works contracts worth $500 million to befriended contractors.
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