The personal assistant of Colombia’s former President Alvaro Uribe resigned on Monday after being implicated in a scandal over alleged mafia involvement in a conspiracy to rig the 2018 presidential election.
Maria Claudia Daza allegedly coordinated vote-buying in northern Colombia with Jose Guillermo Hernandez, the alleged money launderer of the drug trafficking organization of Marquitos Figueroa.
Hernandez was murdered in Brazil in May last year.
According to television network Caracol, friends of Daza said she will leave the country on Tuesday claiming “the country convicted her before hearing her.”
Maria Claudia Daza
Attorney and journalist Daniel Mendoza
Daza is a childhood friend of Hernandez’ widow, former Miss Colombia Maria Monica Urbina and Uribe’s right hand in the Senate and a witness in a Supreme Court investigation into the far-right politician’s alleged fraud and bribery practices.
Wiretapping of drug trafficker reveals vote-buying for Duque on Uribe’s orders
MD = Maria Claudia Daza?
In wiretap transcripts that were leaked to journalist Gonzalo Guillen, a woman identified as “MD” told Hernandez two weeks before the second election round that she had 1000 million pesos ($280,000) for vote-buying.
“MD”
In the same wiretapped conversation, MD told Hernandez that “Ivan and Uribe sent me to Manaure, Uribia, Riohacha and Maicao. We have to win in La Guajira.”
Hernandez has been linked to money laundering since 2009. He was being wiretapped as part of a murder investigation while coordinating the election fraud.
Colombia’s 2018 election fraud: investigations against Uribe and Duque piling up
Duque’s legitimacy on the line
Late mafia boss Jose Guillermo Hernandez (R) and President Ivan Duque. (Image: La Nueva Prensa)
The revelation of the alleged involvement of the drug trafficking organization from La Guajira in the 2018 elections has triggered all kinds of investigations, including one by the Supreme Court against Uribe.
Furthermore, the second election fraud allegation has called the legitimacy of Duque into question with many, sometimes jokingly, referring to the runner up in the elections, Senator Gustavo Petro, as “Mr. President.”
Journalist Enrique Santos
The journalists who have been revealing the alleged links between Duque’s Democratic Center party and the mafia said over the weekend that they were being shadowed by subordinates of Prosecutor General Francisco Barbosa, a personal friend of the president.
Barbosa is supposed to be investigating the confessed election fraud, but has no credibility because of his conflict of interest and previous attempts to politicize the prosecution.