Colombian senator-elect Piedad Córdoba was released this Thursday in Honduras after being detained on Wednesday at an airport in the country after she tried to travel to Panama. With nearly $68,000 in her undeclared suitcase, she reported. an official source.
“After the investigations and the documentation presented to the Public Ministry, (Córdoba) is no longer under administrative detention” in Honduras, indicated The National Migration Institute (INM) in a statement.
The 67-year-old Colombian senator “does not have any mobility restrictions, so she is She is totally free to stay or leave the country as she decides,” she added.
Córdoba was provisionally detained on Wednesday at the Palmerola International Airport, located in the region of Central Honduras, when he intended to board a flight to Panama.
The case was heard by the Honduran Public Ministry, an agency that had 48 hours to investigate the origin of the money , according to that institution.
Honduran law allows up to 10,000 dollars as the maximum amount of money that a person can carry, as long as they prove its origin.
The Honduran Vice Minister of Security, Julissa Villanueva , evaluated today “the medical condition and (the) place” where Córdoba, who had already been a senator between 1994 and 2010, remained. in police custody.
“Evaluate the medical condition and location of former senator Piedad Córdoba, who remains in custody by the @PoliciaHonduras, in accordance with legal procedures. Respect for human rights is unrestricted for everyone in Honduras,” according to a message from Villanueva on Twitter, which accompanies a photograph of Colombian politics.
According to the Government of Honduras, the senator arrived She entered the country last Sunday to “participate in activities of various women’s and human rights organizations, as has been disseminated with photographs and videos in the media and social networks.”
In In a statement, the Executive headquarters in Tegucigalpa indicated that that Córdoba requested On Tuesday, an audience with the Honduran president, Xiomara Castro, “with the aim of greeting her and was received as her friend and political leader.” p>”The Government of the Republic reaffirms its commitment to transparency and respect for immigration and immigration regulations,” said the official. The Presidency of Honduras.
In February, an investigation by Noticias Caracol revealed a statement before the Prosecutor’s Office by Andrés Vásquez, former adviser to the elected congresswoman.
In it, the man assured that some 15 years ago the policy “would have politically capitalized on the surrender of hostages to the point of delaying the release of Íngrid Betancourt and the three US contractors.”
The senator has also been accused of having ties to the alleged front man of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, Álex Saab, who is detained and with whom she would have traveled and done business, as some political sectors denounce.