Senator Mario Castaño, who prosecute for corruption, would have his own minibench in the elected Congress

The questioned Senator of the Liberal Party, Mario Castaño, who despite the criminal proceedings being brought before him for various corruption-related crimes was re-elected to a new legislative term, would have his own bench, since there are several elected congressmen who are from his close circle.

Through an investigation carried out by journalist Juan Pablo Barrientos, from the independent media Vorágine, and which he replicated on Caracol Radio, in its section Las Cuentas Claras, it was found that several of the new representatives to the House from the departments of Quindío, Caldas and Cauca have links with Castaño.

Among those mentioned are Sandra Bibiana Aristizábal Saleg, former manager of the regional channel Telecafé, who won 11,694 votes. They found that he was in charge of public procurement in Armenia (Quindío) during the mayor's office entrusted to Oscar Castellanos during 2018 and 2019, whose appointment was given on the recommendation of Senator Castaño, according to sources that consulted on the radio.

They recalled that Castellanos replaced Mayor Carlos Mario Álvarez Morales, who resigned because of the prosecution's accusation that he diverted 80 billion pesos to contractors close to former mayor of the Quindian capital Luz Piedad Valencia Franco.

On that station they recalled that, according to information from the regional newspaper El Quindiano, Aristizábal Saleg was characterized by supposedly favoring people with contracts who voted for the liberal candidate Piedad Correal Rubiano during the elections to elect the mayor of Armenia. The former candidate in these congressional elections, participated as a co-equiperer of Aristizábal Saleg.

Even the elected representative was suspended from office in 2019 by the Attorney General's Office, but once the 2019 contest ended, she returned to her post. Later, in 2020 she was appointed as manager of Telecafé, apparently also on the recommendation of Congressman Castaño, during the period of Governor Roberto Jairo Jaramillo Cárdenas, on whom the congressman himself imposed the tape of office.

In that journalistic investigation, they also highlighted that Aristizábal Saleg resigned from her position at Telecafé on family grounds, but they reported that in the media had transcended that the elected congresswoman resigned because of contracts that the supervisory authorities have investigations about.

The congresswoman elect denied any link with Senator Castaño and the corruption network for which they point him out, and are investigating him, when she was consulted for that journalistic investigation.

They also mentioned her teammate, Piedad Correal Rubiano, who was the Ombudsman in Quindío and who, as mentioned earlier, failed in her attempt to reach the Armenian mayor's office in 2019, since by then some recordings were revealed in which they talk about alleged hiring addresses in that city that dot the questioned senator.

Another of those mentioned was José Octavio Cardona León, whose candidacy was animously supported by Castaño, there are even posters with a photograph of the two. According to what they found in that Caracol Radio investigation, the elected representative received support from the senator investigated when he was mayor of Manizales between 2016 and 2019, even Castaño would have accompanied him to register his candidacy for office, and the wife donated 40 million to his campaign.

Alongside them is former mayor of Popayán César Cristian Gómez Castro, who assured that he has not received financial support from Castaño, after Semana magazine published an audio in which there is supposedly an agreement to contribute millionaire resources to his campaign to the congress.

In early 2022, the Supreme Court's Instruction Chamber opened a formal investigation and called Liberal Party Senator Mario Alberto Castaño for inquiry. The official is charged with the crime of concert to commit an aggravated crime for being the alleged leader of a corruption network, which directed at least 50 contracts in order to seize public resources in Valle del Cauca, Cauca, Tolima, Chocó and Risaralda.

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