The Vice President of the Republic, Hugo Velázquez, now resigning, confirmed that yesterday the Government’s top staff met before the announcement by the US Embassy to evaluate the measures to be adopted in light of the versions received by Mario Abdo that “the The bomb was going to fall very close. Today the designation of him as “significantly corrupt” was finalized.
In an interview with Radio Cardinal, Vice President Hugo Velázquez stated that he will resign his position and his candidacy for the Presidency, since yesterday he had mentioned to President Mario Abdo Benítez that he was going to resign if today the US Embassy announced his appointment as significantly corrupt, as it finally happened.
Asked why he already suspected yesterday that he was going to be appointed by the State Department, he revealed that the Executive Branch was already aware that the announcement was going to involve a high authority. “They told the president that he could fall very close, but five minutes before the conference, the ambassador confirmed my name to Marito,” he said.
At another point, he maintained that he was surprised by the designation and that now he will seek to clean up his image by proving his innocence. “I’m blank, I don’t know what you are referring to in terms of my finances. It is a big lie, because it was not me who offered (the bribe of more than 1 million dollars to open an investigation against him), but it would have been a third person (his friend Charly Duarte, who was also designated by the US) , but that never happened, I don’t even know the file where I am being investigated. I have nothing to commit to in the Hijazi case or the bilateral record. I have not the faintest idea because I am not investigated in any file. I have no idea about the accusation. I never ordered to offer anything in any file that I don’t even know about, ”he added.
The politician maintained that he had not yet spoken with his friend Duarte, who would have been the link through which the bribe would have been offered to a high-ranking official to avoid investigating Velázquez’s finances. “I still haven’t talked to him to ask if it’s true or not that he offered the bribe. I am 99.9% sure that Juan Carlos Duarte is going to tell me no (that there was no offer of money). I didn’t ask you to go offer anything to anyone. He is a friend of mine, ”he limited.
Although he will resign from his position, he indicated that his relatives who are holding public office will continue in their positions. “What do they have to do with an accusation against me?” he wondered.
On the other hand, he said he did not know who will be chosen as his replacement to be the pre-candidate for the Presidency by the ruling movement.
