Simón Vélez controversial statements on politicians' financing – Congress – Politics

A new element was added Thursday to the controversy surrounding Sen. and former presidential candidate, Gustavo Petro, after the revelation by Senator Paloma Valencia of a video in which Colombian leader Humana was receiving several bundles of banknotes.

It's an interview-profile that the journalist Lorenzo Morales in Simón Vélez, published in the magazine Gatopardo in 2016, in which the renowned architect speaks of his efforts in favor of politicians. According to Petro, the money that Juan Carlos Montes gave him in the video comes from Vélez.

La Radio's reporters spoke about it Thursday after the controversy that triggered the video's release, as the senator and his friends commented that the resources they received came from Vélez.

The note shows the architect as a character who likes to break the rules and likes political activism, but without ideological boundaries.

A fragment of the text in Leopard said: "But in politics, they serve lunch and others put the money in. I entrust to customers and friends the task of investing money", m & # 39; confided Simon, refractory to morality, who gave his political activism a risky turn, playing the role of opaque characters that never appear but go through the shadows of politics as as second-tier bankers who fund candidates such as those who invest – or who bet – on the stock market. When they win, some exert influence, others cash and interest. "

"Are not you afraid to interfere in these steps?" I asked.
-I find it entertaining. It's the novel of life. It's exciting. And whatever the degree of corruption of a politician, a policeman is worse, believe me. In a democracy, while it takes so much money for an election, this can only be done through corruption. A policy without money does not exist. "

Another part says: "……..As a fundraiser (sometimes involving him as an improvised treasurer and keeping juicy collections in kitchen jars), he gets contributions to antagonistic personality campaigns such as the former Mayor of Bogotá, Gustavo Petro, former guerrilla to whom he lends his rest home in Girardot, as Germán Vargas Lleras, right and current Vice President of the Republic. "My party is neo-opportunism," explained Simon when I emphasized the elasticity of his political affections, as flexible as the guadua, and where they correspond to ideals separated by an abyss as deep as that flying over this silent helicopter. … "

Three paragraphs above, Morales also recounts that Vélez had organized a luncheon for "a provincial politician" with "media directors, ancestry columnists and an emerald entrepreneur". This politician who wanted to enter the "national scene" and approach the elite of Bogota was Álvaro Uribe Vélez, today President of the Republic and leader of the party of the Democratic Center.

It is a senator of this party, Paloma Valencia, who revealed Tuesday during the debate to the prosecutor Néstor Humberto Martínez about the business Odebrecht and Pizano, the video in which we see Gustavo Petro receive the money and put it in a bag . The conversation of the video is not audible and this, apparently, was surreptitiously recorded.

Petro's close friends told El TIEMPO that his personal interlocutor was Juan Carlos Montes, his personal friend and that he was previously in charge of the financial side of the political movement of the current senator. In addition, the apartment where the video was recorded was the one where Petro was renting and the amount delivered, between 20 and 25 million pesos in cash, had been sent by Simón Vélez.

Since the release of the audiovisual, Petro and his bank claimed that the ticket packages had been delivered by Véléz 12 years ago in the form of a "loan" related to the 2006 presidential campaign, for a total amount of $ 20 million. pesos.

As for why it was registered with the money received, Petro said that these are the "questions" that arise, as well as "why 14 years later the video is presented".

In addition, he badured that the presentation of the video was a "strategy" to "undermine" the debate on political control, in which he was one of the main detractors of the prosecutor Martinez.

ELTIEMPO.COM