For this coming March 3, the commander in chief of the Army, Ricardo Martínez, is summoned to testify as accused in the framework of the “Tickets and Freight” section of the investigation for fraud in the military institution headed by the visiting minister. Romy Rutherford.
As reported by the newspaper ThirdMartínez learned of the official letter that summons him as allegedly involved in the “Pasajes y Fretes” -irregular use of money assigned for official trips- and “Reserved Expenses” -alleged embezzlement of resources destined for Security and Intelligence- just before handing over his post.
The background that Minister Rutherford handled to summon Martínez to testify was in a report prepared by the Investigative Police (PDI), who investigated 15 transfers registered between 2009 and 2019, analyzing how many of these there was irregular behavior with the funds that he received. were granted to leave the country.
Based on the prosecutions of other generals in the case, the modus operandi for the alleged fraud consisted of a travel agency preparing the departures, looking for tickets with long stopovers and at a lower price than budgeted, so that there was a difference in money that many times ended up in the pockets of high officials, something that according to the Army was an “erroneous practice”.
Minister Rutherford has the power – due to the fact that military justice is governed by the old penal system – to order the interrogated person to be detained for up to five days while she decides whether to prosecute him or set him free. What would be unprecedented in this case since Martínez is still in charge.
The one who will represent Martínez is the criminal lawyer Juan Carlos Manríquez, who told the aforementioned media that his client “is committed to his institutional duties related to the prompt delivery of command to his successor”, and yet, “through his representation legal, is attentive to the progress of the judicial processes in which some diligence that supposes its intervention could be decreed”.
