A donation from the teachers union, Petro's new headache

The noise surrounding the financing of the campaign that brought Gustavo Petro to the Presidency of Colombia is not new.

After the leftist leader achieved a historic victory in the 2022 elections, questions arose about the accounts that he presented to the National Electoral Council (CNE).

Until now the president and members of his campaign have avoided the accusations, but a recent investigation by the Attorney General's Office once again calls them into question.

At the center of the investigation is the Colombian Federation of Education Workers (Fecode), one of the country's main unions, which provided the resources that are under scrutiny.

The mess revolves around a check for 500 million pesos (about $125,000) drawn by Fecode and which allegedly went to the campaign, which legally exists as a legal entity.

In August of last year,

revealed that the union organization transferred this money, but not to the presidential campaign.

Although the purpose of the donation was to support the then candidate - this was confirmed by Fecode directors to the media -, the money was given to Colombia Humana, one of the parties that belongs to the Historical Pact, the leftist coalition that granted the endorsement. to Petro.

Colombian law prohibits corporations, associations, societies and foundations from contributing monetarily to presidential campaigns, and the authorities are investigating whether the money was used to cover expenses of the electoral aspiration.

The theory about a possible triangulation of resources – that it went through the party to evade the law – is the foundation of the mess.

The matter was activated on January 22 when officials from the Prosecutor's Office carried out an inspection at the headquarters of Fecode, in Bogotá.

Although the investigation went unnoticed by public opinion, two days later the president drew attention to what happened.

“The raid of a workers' organization, seeking to see how the paths are found to remove the president of the Republic from the Presidency.

We are not dealing with anything,” he said while visiting the department of Chocó with his ministers.

Without referring to the income of the contribution to his campaign, he criticized the actions of the Prosecutor's Office.

“I always thought that the raids were about mafia organizations that illegally finance politicians.

Now it is about workers' organizations, because the president is not part of drug trafficking or politicians who allow themselves to be financed by drug trafficking.”

Petro has spoken of legal movements to remove him from the Government, in what he has called a “soft coup” or reflections of the so-called

.

At the end of May 2023, he thus described the decisions of state bodies external to the Executive, such as the Prosecutor's Office, against members of his party for diverse and dissimilar cases.

“By the way, have you realized that they are taking away the votes of the congressmen of the Historical Pact, suspending them with administrative orders?

That is, they are de facto changing the political representation in the Congress that the people elected.

They took away the Pact's presidency of Congress and now its votes.

“It is a soft blow,” he then wrote in X. “It is unfortunate but we are in the same situation as all Latin American countries.

They use the Prosecutor's Office and the Attorney General's Office to resolve politics,” he added.

In the case of the financing of his campaign, his questions were overshadowed by the findings of the Prosecutor's Office, which were published by the newspaper

.

One of them is a meeting minute of the Fecode executive committee, dated May 3, 2022, in which it is approved that “financial support be given to the campaign of the candidate Gustavo Petro for the Presidency of Colombia.”

Three weeks later, according to another document to which the newspaper had access, the union issued a check for 500 million pesos in the name of Dagoberto Quiroga, representative of Colombia Humana, with the objective of "collaborating with the Petro Presidente campaign." 2022-2026″.

On September 23 of that same year, with Petro already installed as head of state and after the publication of

about the donation not reported in the official accounts of the presidential campaign, Quiroga went to a notary's office to sign a public deed that contradicted what was in the Fecode files.

In that writing it was made clear that the contribution of the union organization was made “for the political party (Colombia Humana movement) but not for the presidential campaign.”

Five days later, President Petro appointed Quiroga as superintendent of Home Public Services.

When asked about the discrepancy between the deed and what was stipulated by Fecode, the superintendent explained that Fecode did try to make a contribution to the campaign, but that it rejected it.

It was at that moment that the possibility arose of donating it to Colombia Humana, he says, to cover operating expenses.

“We delayed doing the deed because we didn't agree on dates and we were collecting the documents.

We accept the money because this is a young party and it needs funds,” he commented.

His version coincides with that of Eduardo Noriega, spokesperson for Colombia Humana, who assured

that “the donation came to the party and not to the campaign.”

The Prosecutor's Office will continue to investigate the final whereabouts of the money.

If his entry into the campaign is proven, it would imply that the campaign, managed by the current president of Ecopetrol Ricardo Roa, violated the limits established by law.

The accounts in the possession of the CNE indicate that the candidacy of the current president did not exceed the financial limit by 151 million pesos (37,750 dollars) in the first round and 147 million pesos (36,750 dollars) in the second.

The 500 million under scrutiny would exceed these two borders and would be added to other possible monies not reported by the campaign and that are under investigation.

Last June,

magazine revealed recordings of former ambassador Armando Benedetti, in which he stated that he helped obtain 15,000 million pesos (3.7 million dollars) for the campaign;

and in August, in the middle of his judicial process, Nicolás Petro, the president's eldest son, admitted that irregular money was also used in the race for the Presidency.

However, weeks later, Nicolás indicated that he had been “pressured” to become “a weapon” against his father.

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