September 15, 2022, 23:20 PM
September 15, 2022, 23:20 PM
This Thursday Valeria Rodríguez declared for more than four hours, the person who uncovered the case of the 800 items ‘ghosts’ in the Santa Cruz Mayor’s Office. Her lawyer, Juan Ramón Quezada, denounced that the police pressured her so that she tried to incriminate other former municipal officials.
“She was summoned for 3:00 p.m. and they kept her for more than four hours declaring. They told her that if she did not cooperate they would have her detained until 02:00 this Friday. There was coercion from the Anti-Corruption officers, because they wanted her to link people and because she didn’t, they wouldn’t let her go, “explained the lawyer in contact with EL DEBER.
Quezada explained that his client was summoned to expand her testimony as a witness in the Departmental Prosecutor’s Office of the second ring, within the process of legitimation of illicit profits that exists against her ex-husband Antonio Parada Vaca, the former director of Human Resources of the Santa Cruz Mayor’s Office, who is the main defendant in the ‘ghost items’ case.
He indicated that he arrived together with Valeria Rodríguez at the offices of the Public Ministry, but was removed in an “abusive” manner by five agents of the Anti-Corruption Unit of the Special Force to Fight Crime (Felcc).
“They took me out of the room and They put her alone to testify without the presence of a prosecutor. They kept me incommunicado for more than four hours with my client and it was only when the prosecutor (Iván) Quintanilla arrived that I was able to enter because I complained about Valeria’s rights. However, they only let me be with her for five minutes, because a policeman took me out again over the prosecutor, ”he denounced.
He said that, during that time, the troops they demanded the witness to incriminate third parties to let her out of the place. “Of the four hours that she was inside, she declared only 20 minutes because the policemen did not know what to ask her and they went to the office of the departmental prosecutor Róger Mariaca to consult him on what they should interrogate him. Not even the policemen knew what the investigation is about,” she noted.
In this situation, the lawyer decided to call the media to a press conference to denounce that his client was held in the Anticorruption offices. And so it was that she managed to let the witness out, but questioned the actions of the prosecutor Mariaca.
“The police heard me speak on the cell phone with the media and they immediately informed the departmental prosecutor. So when we went out, a cash takes the statement from Valeria Rodríguez’s hand and tells him that it was to make a photocopy, but they did not return it. They did this to give Mariaca time, who went down and gave a press conference, thus preventing me from denouncing the abuses, despite the fact that I called the media, “she lamented.
According to the lawyer, his client declared about the goods that Antonio monopolized Stopped with the money that he obtained irregularly with resources from the ‘ghost items’, but he did not accuse anyone, as the police asked, because “he stood firm and listened to me when I yelled at him from outside not to sign what he did not declared.”
In addition, he said that for this case of legitimization of illicit profits they had already presented evidence of the houses and the more than 40 vehicles that belonged to Parada, but some were under the name of “white sticks”. However, he denounced that these documents were lost despite the fact that they were in the possession of the Prosecutor’s Office and that is how Valeria Rodríguez was summoned again.
For his part, the departmental prosecutor, Róger Mariaca, confirmed that The witness came forward to testify but he avoided giving details of the testimony, as he pointed out that the prosecutor Iván Quintanilla would give more information about it this Friday.
He indicated that this It is “one more diligence” of the others that are being developed for the ‘ghost items’ case and said that investigative acts will continue to be carried out to clarify this alleged act of corruption within the Santa Cruz Mayor’s Office.
Likewise, he indicated that the procedures continue to be carried out with the Bolivian Foreign Ministry to achieve the extraction of Antonio Paradawho has been detained in Brazil since mid-January.
