Almost two years after the scandal, man who sold donkey and horse meat for the Bucaramanga PAE has not been convicted

In December 2020, authorities in Bucaramanga, in Santander, captured a man who had sold donkey and horse meat to the School Feeding Program, PAE, in several municipalities in the department. However, in the last few hours, the mayor of the city, Juan Carlos Cárdenas, warned that this man would continue to market this meat.

At that time, the man was identified as Fernando Trujillo, alias 'The Godfather', and the Prosecutor's Office noted that he had been marketing donkey and horse meat since 2018, using chemicals to pass it off as beef. At that time, a guarantee control judge benefited him from house to prison after considering that he deserved this benefit because he was a parent head of the family.

However, the case has been stalled and by March 29, 2022, almost two years later, the man continues to measure from house to prison without being convicted of the act. This is why, with indignation, Mayor Cárdenas issued a strong wake-up call to the authorities to accelerate the hearing of charges against 'The Godfather' and, in addition, requested that there be an exemplary conviction against the man.

The local president recalled that “apparently, he handed us donkey and horse meat to our children and that is a mockery. In addition to mockery, it affects health and that's why we ask you to pay because these white-collar thieves can't stay calm and they walk around the country and nothing happens.”

For Cárdenas, it is important that the authorities condemn in an exemplary way the man who served as former contractor of the Bucaramanga Mayor's Office, specifically, to provide the protein to the PAE for public schools in the city. The Prosecutor's Office noted that, in September 2020, it sold to the Administration meat that was not suitable for consumption by minors, nor was it what had been purchased and stipulated in the contract.

The president recalled that in this case the Mayor's Office of Bucaramanga is listed as a victim of Fernando Trujillo, but that even so the authorities have not acted after almost two years and this man continues to benefit from house to prison without the process progressing.

In the midst of the first hearings, the Prosecutor's Office charged Trujillo with the crimes of food corruption in homogeneous and simultaneous bankruptcy on 18 occasions, procedural fraud and falsehood in a private document. In addition, they revealed audios of telephone conversations in which Fernando Trujillo Gómez spoke with his accomplices about the complaints they received from schools about the quality of meat.

Blu Radio then revealed the transcripts of those conversations, in which Trujillo explained that donkey meat had to be beaten and chemically applied to make it not so hard. “He tells Fernando that the old women in the kitchen almost gave him a garrote because “it's too hard” (horse meat?) , it doesn't go in blocks and comes out like a rubber. Fernando responds that this is like the one for beef, he explains that there is one that is for sweating and another that is for roasting,” the station revealed.

For her part, the Secretary of Education, Ana Leonor Rueda, joined the mayor's demand and said that “we will always respect the judicial decisions and investigations that are ongoing, but we respectfully request that this case be expedited. Citizens are asking for answers and sanctions for those who have been involved in this process.”

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