A delegation of four assembly members will travel to Colombia to deliver a report related to Alex Saab. Is the trip necessary?
Fernando Villavicencio, president of the Audit Commission in the Assembly, assured that His trip to Colombia, along with three other members of that legislative body, has two main justifications.
In the first place, it is done in compliance with a resolution voted by a majority of 5 members of the same commission. This resolution establishes that the report on the plot of fictitious exportsThrough the Sucre system, it had to be considered by the United States, Panama, Colombia and Ecuador prosecutors.
“We have sent through diplomatic channels, through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the report and the endorsements to the United States justice, the United States Department of State, the Prosecutor’s Office and the Government of Panama,” he said.
Invitation from Iván Duque
However, the physical presence of the assembly members, in the case of Colombia, is a direct result of an invitation from the president Ivan Duque.
Villavicencio pointed out that, during the last hearing of the president Guillermo Lasso, the Colombian Foreign Ministry had raised the invitation “for us to go personally to deliver the documents and explain to them, since it is a complex issue.”
Thus, on Tuesday, January 11, 2022, at the Casa de Nariño, the President of the Audit Commission and three more members (Ana Belén Cordero, Bruno Segovia and Pedro Velasco) will be received at the Casa de Nariño, at 10:00, by President Duque. That meeting would last less than an hour.
On Wednesday, January 12, 2022, at 11:00, the appointment will be with the President of the Senate; and that same day, at 3:00 p.m., the last meeting will take place with the Colombian Attorney General.
«This trip brings the Assembly no more than $ 5,000. In other words, it is an insignificant cost compared to the importance for Ecuador and America that this case is known to the Colombian authorities, “Villavicencio stressed.
#NOW | The former president, Rafael Correa received a notification from the #CasoSucre, which began after the arrest of #AlexSaab, considered one of the front men of Chavismo. ???? https://t.co/cQkRPoMe2R pic.twitter.com/vuEnuhlnyv
– The Ecuador Hour (@lahoraecuador) December 30, 2021
Two issues interest Colombia
On the one hand, the first issue is the bilateral agreement, signed in November 2011, between Colombia and Venezuela. This agreement enabled the alleged export of 8,400 prefabricated houses from the Fondo company Global Construction, owned by Alex Saab, to Venezuela.
«It was a screen agreement because not a single house was exported from Colombia to Venezuela. This agreement allowed the paper company Fondo Global de Construcciones, which was created in Bogotá five days before the signing of the bilateral agreement, to operate with impunity, “Villavicencio pointed out.
The Colombian authorities They must investigate because that agreement was not signed by an official from that country, but by Saab. The president of that time, Juan Manuel Santos, only participated as an observer.
Piedad Córdoba and her flights to Ecuador
The other topic of interest to Colombia are the links of the former senator of that country Mercy Cordoba with the corruption plot and directly with Alex Saab.
In accordance with VillavicencioCórdoba came to Ecuador on several private flights, but at least one of them has documented evidence of this link.
With reports from the Government Ministry and the Civil Aviation Directorate (DAG), it was confirmed that, in July 2013, Córdoba and his son entered Ecuador with Saab, on a flight with American registration and owned by the Colombian businessman, who is now imprisoned in U.S.
«What was the reason for the visit to Ecuador if on that date the Global Construction Fund was already being investigated. That same plane was captured in 2020, in Florida, by the American justice. But on that occasion it had a Venezuelan license plate and a shipment of weapons, “questioned Villavicencio.
In addition, he stressed that another series of private flights. These include one linked to Alvaro Pulido, with an itinerary from Bogotá-Quito-Cuenca.
The corruption plot
The passengers, in addition to Pulido, were, among others, Luis Eduardo Sánchez Yánez (shareholder of Fondo Global de Construcciones); the citizen of Venezuelan origin Carlos León Ponte, who is the owner of the Cefis Securities House. That brokerage house moved more than $ 30 million from Ecuador to Panama.
León Ponte is married to Micaela Lehrer Alarcón, owner of the company Inconeg SA, who received $ 4.3 million from Alex Saab, within the plot of fictitious exports, and, a few days after receiving that money, he made a contribution of $ 70,000 to the last presidential campaign of Rafael Correa.
Also, on that flight they were William Montefusco, a Venezuelan banker related to Saab; Luis Giusti Lugo and Luis Giusti López, father and son who are oil businessmen linked to PDVSA.
«The trip was to a meeting with Nasib Neme and the Eljuri group, with whom he had business in the framework of fictitious exports to Venezuela, “said Villavicencio.
The investigation of these flights, which is included in the report that will be delivered to the Colombian authorities, provoked an angry reaction from Córdoba.
In an interview published in that country’s media Semana, the former senator referred to Villavicencio as a “son of a bitch who is opposition to Rafael Correa.” He also assured that he has no connection with Saab and warned that “this Villavicencio guy who has his ears, because he nails it to me. I am going to denounce and I will take whoever it is, I will go with everything ».
According to Villavicencio, this reaction confirms that the report reaches the central point of business and Alex Saab bindings, alleged figurehead of Nicolás Maduro, Álvaro Pulido, a drug trafficker who assumed the name of a dead man, and Piedad Córdoba, with the Venezuelan Government.
These businesses and connections make up a transnational network of organized crime, which involves the use of freely available Ecuadorian reserves to finance fictitious exports.
“The Venezuelan state benefited from $ 2,697 million in reserves to carry out exports, in some fictitious cases and in others overvalued. There participated, between 2010 and 2014, 308 companies, between 2010 and 2014, one of them is Fondo Global de Construcciones », he concluded. (JS)
