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(CNN Spanish) - The Colombian Attorney General's Office requested a hearing on charges against the mayor of Popayán, Juan Carlos López Castrillón, “against whom an investigation was opened for ideological falsehood in a public document (article 286 CP), for allegedly omit, in the protocol of entry to the Presidency of the Republic, information about your stay in other countries ”.
López Castrillón, who had met with President Iván Duque on March 14, reported five days later that he had covid-19.
“I want to point out that some people sometimes try to hide these results, that is not a responsible or serious attitude. I want to tell you that we should all follow an example. At the first symptom we have of this disease, we must go to the medical centers, ”the president of the capital of the department of Cauca had indicated on his Twitter account.
- Colombian President Iván Duque is being tested for coronavirus; negative
CNN contacted the press office of the Mayor's Office of Popayán, where they indicated that the mayor is on leave and referred us to the statement of López Castrillón on his Twitter account.
On March 20 -through a video- López Castrillón assured that he did not evade sanitary protocols, since according to him, when he returned from Morocco on March 1 (having passed through Spain) there were no quarantine measures in Colombia yet and he did not had symptoms.
# Clarification pic.twitter.com/0HIO4MgGRy
- Juan Carlos López Castrillón (@jclopezcastri) March 21, 2020
The mayor points out that on March 14, when he met with President Duque at the Casa de Nariño, upon admission he stated that he had not been out of the country in the last 14 days. "By recalling, in that row, for me the two weeks had already passed without being out of the country, data that I provided without any intention of evading any type of protocol."
According to the Colombian Presidency, the protocol for entering the Casa de Nariño had been strictly followed that day when Duque received the mayors and governors. Among others, it included registration with names and surnames, temperature taking, questionnaire about possible symptoms, information on countries visited, specifically places at risk during the last 14 days, contact with people with symptoms or those infected in that period.
The presidential statement of March 20 indicates that López Castrillón responded negatively to questions about symptoms such as fever or cough, countries visited in the last 14 days and contact with people with symptoms.
According to the statement from the Prosecutor's Office, this crime includes a prison term of 64 months and an inability of 144 months to hold public office.
- Fernando Ramos of CNN en Español in Bogotá collaborated with this report.
Colombiacovid-19