Former Colombian senator involved in Odebrecht sentenced to 13 years in prison

Bogotá, March 15 The Supreme Court of Colombia sentenced former Senator Antonio Guerra de la Espriella of the radical change party to 13 years, 8 months and one day in prison for engaging in human trafficking in the corruption scandal of a Brazilian construction company and influential trafficking in Odebrecht in the country. “The Chamber of Commerce ordered him to be sentenced to 164 months and one day in prison,” adding that a statement issued by the court on Tuesday received a fine of more than 1.1 billion pesos ($308,500) and the inability to perform public functions for more than 13 years. Guerra de la Espriella, according to the Supreme Court ruling, would have been a member of a criminal enterprise led by the manager of Odebrecht and several lobbyists “to commit undecided crimes” as a senator at the end of 2012. Thus, he exercised “excessive influence” to Mauricio Cárdenas, then Minister of Finance, to conclude a concession agreement with Odebrecht, which materialized in December of that year. Lobbyists (Federico Gaviria, Otto Bulabula, Bernardo Miguel Elias) accounted for 4 billion pesos (more than a million dollars), and Gera earned $2 billion ($52,500) “for achieving the mission proposed to the criminal organization.” According to the Supreme Court ruling, the former senator unfairly affected Clemente Luis del Valle, then President of National Development Finance, giving green light to the Portuguese company AFA Vías interested in acquiring shares in Odebrecht. The former congressional member also influenced the award of the contract for the Navelena consortium, of which the Brazilian consortium was the main shareholder of 87%, and was expected to recover the possibility of navigation on the country's main Magdalena River for more than 13 years. The former senator of Cambio Radical, who obtained a “unfair capital increase” of nearly 600 million pesos (more than $150,000) between 2012 and 2017, was convicted of a concert for committing a crime that was aggravated, among other crimes. Officials acquitted themselves of human trafficking and illegal enrichment of the public and bribery of influence. In addition, the court ruled that after surrendering in March 2019, when the arrest was ordered, it should remain in jail without being replaced by house arrest or a conditional suspension of the sentence. According to data released by the US Department of Justice on December 21, 2016, Odebrecht paid bribes worth 11 million dollars in Colombia as part of a million-dollar corruption network established in Latin America and Africa. However, the Colombian Prosecutor's Office estimates the amount of bribes of construction companies in the country at 840 billion pesos (about $271 million). On November 7, 2017, the Attorney General's Office launched an official investigation into the Odebrecht corruption scandal against eight members of the House of Representatives, including Gera de la Espriella. A week later, the Prosecutor's Office asked the court to investigate the prosecuted members of Congress, along with seven other lawmakers who preferred construction companies. Former Senator Otto Bula, who received $4.6 million to mediate a contract with a Brazilian company in Colombia, is being arrested for the Odebrecht case.