Colombian judge to question 'El Pollo' Carvajal about alleged funding for Gustavo Petro

Judge Cristina Lombana Velásquez was authorized by the National High Court to conduct the interrogation process of the former head of Venezuelan Intelligence, Hugo El Pollo Carvajal, who is provisionally detained in Spain. According to what OKDIARIO revealed, the judge will be responsible for investigating the accusations that point to alleged funding on her part for Gustavo Petro's presidential campaign. The meeting was agreed for next Thursday, April 21, in the presence of the prosecutor and the lawyer lawyer of the Colombian politician.

It was last March when it was reported that the Supreme Court of Justice had summoned him to expand the statements he had made in October 2021. For those days he said: “While I was director of Venezuela's Military Intelligence and Counterintelligence, I received a large number of reports indicating that this international funding was taking place. Concrete examples are: Néstor Kirchner in Argentina; Evo Morales in Bolivia; Lula Da Silva in Brazil; Fernando Lugo in Paraguay; Ollanta Humala in Peru; Zelaya in Honduras: Gustavo Petro in Colombia, Five Stars Movement in Italy and Podemos in Spain. All of these were reported as recipients of money sent by the Venezuelan Government.”

It was Petro himself who asked the Supreme Court of Colombia to investigate him for those 'embarrassing accusations that were made in the middle of the election campaign. “I request before the honorable Supreme Court of Justice to allow prior investigation to be opened against me, in relation to the alleged written statements delivered by former Venezuelan General Hugo “El Pollo” Carvajal, to the judge of the Spanish National High Court Manuel García-Castellón, in which Carvajal affirms that the government of Venezuela financed my political campaigns,” Petro said.

In response to the Senator's request, the Colombian high court announced that it will hear the controversial statements of the Chavista military officer against the presidential candidate: “Consequently, in order to meet the purposes set forth in article 322 of Law 600 of 2000, it is ordered to: Listen to HUGO in statement ARMANDO CARVAJAL BARRIOS, known as “EL POLLO, next twenty-first (21) April 2022, starting at 3:00 p.m. local time and 9:00 a.m. Colombia time, at the Penitentiary Center of Madrid VII Estremera-Cira M-241, km 5, 750 Estremera, Madrid”, reads the document of the Supreme Court.

Gustavo Petro, at that time, not only distorted the accusations against him, but also reiterated that he has no relationship with any Venezuelan character. “And they never tire of trying again and again. Those who expect funding from foreign governments to appear for my campaigns at some point in my political life will be left waiting. I don't know Saab or General Hugo Carvajal. I am preparing a legal intervention to confront general and alleged drug trafficker Hugo Carvajal, whether in Spain or in the United States. The presidential candidate said in a trill, in October of the previous year.

El Pollo Carvajal, detained in Spain, keeps administrative and judicial proceedings open. “And they never tire of trying again and again. Those who expect funding from foreign governments to appear for my campaigns at some point in my political life will be left waiting. I don't know Saab or General Hugo Carvajal,” the senator wrote on his Twitter account, defending himself against the accusations. “I am preparing a legal intervention to confront general and alleged drug trafficker Hugo Carvajal, whether in Spain or in the United States,” he added in his reaction to the allegations.

According to Law 1475 of 2011, one of the sources of funding prohibited in Colombia for political parties are “those that come, directly or indirectly, from foreign governments or natural or legal persons, except those carried out as technical cooperation for the development of activities other than campaigns electoral”.

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