The Honduran justice is investigating the origin of the $68,000 in cash seized from the Colombian senator-elect Piedad Córdoba, held in Honduras on Wednesday for not declaring the money before boarding a flight to leave the country.
“The senator was provisionally detained at the airport for carrying dollars that, according to her own version, were the property of a Colombian businessman that she herself identified in Tegucigalpa,” the Honduran government said in a statement.
The information was sent to the Public Ministry “for its corresponding investigation (…) We sympathize with the senator and respect her presumption of innocence,” he added.
The government indicated that on Tuesday 24 Córdoba requested an audience with President Xiomara Castro “and was received as a friend and a politician.”
The Honduran authorities disclosed photographs of the packages of dollars detected by X-rays and seized from the senator-elect at the airport.
“I am not detained for absolutely nothing, that is not true (…) It is a consulting contract that I have with an important group, we worked for two days (…) and they already paid me and that’s all,” he declared. Córdoba to Radio Caracol.
The case may have an impact in Colombia, which is holding presidential elections in four days.
Córdoba was elected senator last March as part of the campaign of Gustavo Petro (left), the favorite in Sunday’s elections, and is due to take office on July 20.
In April, the presidential candidate asked him to withdraw from his campaign until he resolved his problems with the law.
According to international regulations, all passengers must make a customs declaration when carrying more than 10,000 dollars, a measure that seeks to prevent money laundering.
The prosecutor’s spokesman, Yuri Mora, told AFP that according to the reforms to the money laundering law, if someone transports a sum greater than that amount and does not declare it, “the money is seized until they can justify it.”
“In the meantime [la persona] You can continue with your trip and you have those 30 days to be able to justify the lawful origin of the money,” he stressed.
The director of the National Institute of Migration (INM), Allan Alvarenga, said that Córdoba “is not detained” but “only provisionally retained for investigation matters in an administrative matter so that the origin of the undeclared money can be determined.”
The government indicated in the statement that Córdoba entered Tegucigalpa last Sunday, from Colombia, to “participate in activities of various women’s and human rights organizations.”
