Liberal Party financed the campaign of senator-elect investigated for corruption, according to a report by the National Electoral Council

Mario Alberto Castaño Pérez, a senator elected by the Liberal Party with 73,079 votes, is involved in a possible corruption case, which has seven of the nine accused in prison. According to the Office of the Attorney General of the Nation, the insured would allegedly be part of a corruption network reported to intercede in some 50 contracting processes for more than 43 billion pesos.

“The criminal organization, apparently, after intermediation by a congressman, through companies and engineers formulated proposals and projects with the basic requirements for accessing contracts through different entities, such as policies or market research. With all this scaffolding, the acceptance of bids before any instance or entity would be guaranteed.”

The investigation, which was led by the Specialized Directorate Against Corruption of the Prosecutor's Office, found contracts managed such as: the award of “Aguardiente de Chocó”, for 14,492 million pesos; works to address a road emergency, which does not detail, in Villamaría, municipality in the department of Caldas, for 10 billion of pesos; the construction of a park in Nuquí, Chocó, worth 1.25 billion; among some others. In addition to this, 17 appointments were managed “of persons recommended in state entities”, such as governorates and municipal mayors, who had to pay one month of the salary received in the new job.

This “organization”, according to W Radio, in the midst of a prosecutor's office, it was mentioned that Senator Mario Alberto Castaño Pérez would be the head of the “Organized Criminal Group”. In fact, Caracol Radio points out that the congressman managed to set up a “mini bench” with the new representatives to the House for the departments of Quindío, Caldas and Cauca, also members of the Liberal Party.

The congressmen mentioned would be: Sandra Bibiana Aristizábal Saleg, Piedad Correal Rubiano, representatives to the house for the department of Quindio; José Octavio Cardona León, former mayor of Manizales and Cesar Cristian Gómez Castro, former mayor of Popayán, who was called to trial for the alleged irregular delivery of a contract for almost 4 billion pesos, with the aim of outsourcing transit services in the capital of Cauca.

What is striking about all this is that, according to the Individual Report on Income and Expenditure of the Campaign, issued by the National Electoral Council, today's Senator, reported 644 million pesos as the total revenue of the campaign. Of which, by way of: “Contributions, donations and credits, in money or kind, made by individuals”, the Colombian Liberal Party donated 90 million pesos to him. In addition, in court and accountability expenses, the report shows that it has disbursements of $15 million for “court expenses and accountability,” which do not have a statement.

In fact, due to the senator's scandals, and despite the contribution of the Liberal Party, this movement issued a statement stating that they are investigating, preliminarily, N According to the statement, there are allegedly faults that “threaten decorum and ethical behavior in the exercise of electoral political activity”.

For now, there is no official pronouncement either by the congressman or by the bodies that are conducting investigations against him, including the Liberal Party; so today's senator will continue to hold office, along with some of those mentioned above. It should be noted that as a senator, investigations, determinations and/or judgments are carried out by the Supreme Court of Justice.

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