"I did not lend to anyone"

Architect Simon Velez denied Thursday that he had never lent money to Senator Gustavo Petro, having said the opposite to explain a controversial video in which he is seen receiving several bills.

"I, Simon Velez, architect by profession, identified as it appears at the bottom of my signature and following the statement made on social networks, I explained to the public that I had not lent to no one, let alone Mr. Gustavo Petro. ", he said in a well-known statement from the Bogota media.

His statement contradicts what Senator Petro said, since the revelation of the controversial video last Tuesday, that the money came from Vélez and that he sent it in cash because the architect hated the financial system.

This explanation was reinforced Thursday by the Senator via his account Twiiter.

Petro confirmed the words of the senator of the Paloma Valencia Democratic Center, in the sense that the person who appears in the video is Juan Carlos Montes, who was then responsible for his administration to the mayor of Bogota and involved in the scandal. of the machine with hollow lid.

Petro however pointed out that the money had been provided by the architect Simón Vélez, as he had stated after the debate on Tuesday, but that Montes was working with Vélez.

Read also: "The Supreme Court will resume Petro's investigation for alleged corruption".

"Juan Carlos Montes is for me one of the people of my life in which I have deposited the largest of my trusts." He has never worked in my UTL and is dedicated to his professional work as a civil engineer. So he met Simón Vélez. he worked for him in his house projects in guadua, "he said on his Twitter account.

He added: "It is Juan Carlos Montes who introduced me to Simón Vélez from the beginning, I thought him brilliant and I loved his work of architect and his philosophy of Guadua. . " He confessed his friendship with Vargas Lleras and his wife and we turned very friends. "

Petro also explained that he had known Montes since his teenage years in Ciénaga de Oro, Córdoba, and that he had married a sister of an M19 member who had been tortured.

"These two facts tie me very closely to Juan Carlos Montes, he helps me in my campaign against the 1994 Senate, we walk alone on paths in a path in his own car, an old volga that still has a In the year 2000, in his home in Sincelejo where I sleep, I know the mayor El Roble and my current wife, I remember him from the Republic in 1998, I meet him again and he participates in all my political processes. Veronica, "he explained.

He said Montes was interested in being the leader of his campaign for the Senate and that the percentage of what they are talking about in the video is because Montes asks him "a percentage of the resources he gets".

Already in the video, Petro says that even though the DAS now followed him with his own escort, he does not think this entity has recorded it. "I think the one who does it is doing it with the intention of blackmailing me in search of future job opportunities.That's why it lasts 14 years and I think that's why it's a good idea to do it. with the loss of the presidency, they decide to sell it, "he says.

Does Vélez contradict himself?

In the midst of controversy, an article from Gatopardo magazine on Simón Vélez, written by journalist Lorenzo Morales and published on February 8, 2016, was also published, in which he is badured that the Colombian architect has received contributions for campaigns of politicians like Gustavo Petro.

"In the role of fundraiser (sometimes involving him as an improvised treasurer and keeping juicy collections in kitchen jars), he made contributions to campaigns of antagonistic characters such as the former mayor of Bogotá, Gustavo Petro, a guerrilla warrior He lends his rest house to Girardot, like Germán Vargas Lleras, right winger and current vice president of the Republic ", reads in the article entitled "The architect of the vegetable steel".

And it says in another pbadage: "But in politics, some people serve lunch and others put money." I entrust my clients and my friends with the investment of money. "Money," confided Simon, refractory to morality, who gave his political activism a risky turn, playing the role of intermediary between opaque characters who never appear but walk in In the shadow of politics, second-tier bankers who fund candidates like those who invest – or bet – on the stock market.When they win, some weigh under the influence, others in money and with interest . "

Pedro Felipe Gutiérrez, vice-president of the National Electoral Council (CNE), told COLPRENSA that for his 2006 campaign, when the video was being made, Gustavo Petro received 104 million pesos in donations and a loan of 88 millions of pesos.

This Wednesday, after officially receiving the pieces of Senator Valencia, the prosecutor's office announced that he had requested a copy from the Supreme Court of Justice to investigate Petro's actions and quote a statement. under oath to Simón Vélez y Juan. Carlos Montes.