The Prosecutor’s Office and the Public Ministry of the Central American country seek to determine the origin of the currencies that the Petrismo senator sought to bring to Colombia
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Piedad Córdoba will have to answer for alleged money laundering in Honduras. (Colprensa – Camila Díaz)
Although this Thursday, May 26, the elected senator of the Historical Pact, Piedad Córdoba, was released after being detained for carrying 68 thousand dollars in cash at an airport in Honduras, the justice of that country announced that it will investigate the congresswoman for alleged money laundering.
This was confirmed by the Ministry Public and the Prosecutor’s Office of the Central American country, which assured the Colombian and Honduran press that the congresswoman from the coalition of presidential candidate Gustavo Petro will have an investigation into the currency that was found on her at the Palmerola airport b>in the city of Tegucigalpa.
The money that was found on Piedad Córdoba in Tegucigalpa
What’s more, although Córdoba was released and can now return to his native Colombia, the banknotes will remain in the hands of the Honduran justice, meanwhile the origin of the same is determined. According to the former presidential candidate, the dollars were given as part of the payment for an alleged consultancy to a businessman identified as Mauricio Sánchez, who lives in Honduras.
“We were working, we came from doing a job in Colombia, then I came here [Honduras] to work with them and I took the opportunity to hold other meetings, but nothing has happened there,” said Córdoba this week in a dialogue with the magazine < i>Week.
Moreover, Córdoba challenged his detractors to ask Sánchez if it is true that he paid him that money. “Anyone who wants can call Mauricio Sánchez and he himself tells them. This is not a one day job, it is a job that we have been doing. They owed me the money and they paid me here (Honduras)”, added the co-party of the Historical Pact, the coalition led by presidential candidate Gustavo Petro.
For now, the money seized, which in Colombian pesos exceeds 220 million, < /b>will remain in the hands of the Honduran nation’s justice system, while efforts are being made to identifyif Sánchez was the one who gave the outlandish sum to the questioned and investigated Colombian parliamentarian.
The Prosecutor’s Office of that country, for its part, also referred to the versions provided by Córdoba where it said where it had gotten the money and questioned the information it provided after the scandal. “In its first version , she said that the money was from a Colombian businessman residing in Tegucigalpa, the second version was that she did not know that he had the money and the third is that the resources are part of the payment of a consultancy”, said the accusing entity of Honduras, in testimonies compiled by the international press.
The investigation for alleged money laundering by the justice of that country occurs after around 5:30 p.m. m. of this May 26, the senator was released. According to the Honduran Migration Institute, the policy has no mobility restrictions and can enter or leave the Central American country as it sees fit.
“Senator Piedad Córdoba does not have any mobility restrictions, so she is completely free to stay or leave the country as she decides. We reiterate to the Honduran people and the international community that the government of President Xiomara Castro is committed to acting transparently,” the Institute said in a press release.
The The news was celebrated by the congresswoman-elect, who took the opportunity to say that this episodewas an attack on her nameand reiterated that she is free thanks to the fact that it was proven that the money she was carrying came, supposedly, from legal businesses : “Thank you Colombia and our America for so much solidarity. The persecution does not stop, but the truth prevails. Overcome the misunderstanding in Honduras. I especially thank Vice President Marta Lucia Ramírez and Consul Michel Carrillo for their support and attention during this impasse. To the authorities of the brotherly Honduran people, I thank the due process for the legal procedures of the case and its timely resolution,” Córdoba wrote on Twitter.