Medellín authorities seized 2,794 kilograms of beef and pork considered unfit for human consumption during a July 23 operation in the Prado neighborhood, where four people were arrested in flagrante as authorities investigated an alleged clandestine meat-processing operation.

The operation was carried out jointly by the Alcaldía de Medellín, the Policía Metropolitana del Valle de Aburrá, the Fiscalía General de la Nación and INVIMA. Authorities conducted two search-and-seizure procedures at the property, which investigators said was being used for the unauthorized slaughter and processing of pork and beef.

According to information released following the operation, the meat had an estimated commercial value of more than more than $108 million COP. Authorities said the property did not have the required authorization to operate and that the meat was being handled and stored under conditions that did not comply with Colombia’s applicable sanitary requirements. Technical inspections determined that the seized products were not suitable for human consumption.

The investigation also raised concerns about where the meat was being sold. Authorities said the products were allegedly being commercialized in the Plaza Botero area and surrounding parts of central Medellín, one of the city’s busiest areas for pedestrians, visitors and informal and formal commerce.

The four people captured during the operation were placed at the disposal of the Fiscalía General de la Nación and face investigation for the Colombian criminal offense of corruption involving food, medical products or prophylactic materials. Their capture and the seizure of the meat do not, by themselves, establish a final judicial finding of guilt.

The case highlights the public-health risks associated with unauthorized meat processing, particularly where products enter commercial channels without the traceability, sanitary controls and operating permits required by Colombian regulations.

The operation also forms part of a broader pattern of enforcement against illicit or non-compliant meat activity in Antioquia. In May, the Policía Nacional reported the seizure of approximately 9,000 kilograms of meat products and the capture of one person in Donmatías, where authorities were investigating alleged violations involving food products and illegal animal slaughter. That case was separate from the Medellín investigation.

As of August, no additional publicly reported development that materially changes the July 23 account could be independently verified in the sources reviewed for this article. The four July detainees are still being placed at the disposal of the Fiscalía while the investigation proceeds.

For consumers, the operation underscores the importance of traceability and sanitary controls in the meat supply chain. For authorities, the investigation will need to establish the full scope of the alleged operation, including how the meat was processed, stored and distributed and whether additional individuals or businesses were involved.

Headline photo: Some of the meat seized by the Medellin authorities. (Photo provided by Medellín’s mayor’s office)

Three foreign nationals wanted by authorities in the United States, Panama and the Netherlands were captured in and around Medellín within a single week in July, in operations involving Interpol Colombia and international law-enforcement agencies.

The arrests involved a Mexican citizen wanted in the United States for alleged fraud and money laundering, a Panamanian wanted by his country’s authorities over alleged drug trafficking and conspiracy offenses, and a citizen of Curaçao sought by the Netherlands in connection with alleged drug trafficking.

“International cooperation continues to demonstrate that borders are not an advantage for those seeking to evade justice.” – Manuel Villa Mejía, Secretary of Security and Coexistence of Medellín.

The Medellín government said the three cases demonstrate the role of real-time information sharing between Colombian authorities and international partners in locating pe0ople sought through Interpol Red Notices. The three individuals were detained with a view to extradition and placed at the disposal of Colombia’s Fiscalía General de la Nación while the relevant legal and diplomatic procedures proceed.

Mexican national sought by the United States

The most recent of the three cases involved Mexican citizen Bryan Gardea, who was detained at José María Córdova International Airport in Rionegro after arriving on a flight from Miami on July 15.

Gardea was the subject of an Interpol Red Notice requested by US authorities. Colombian and US authorities allege that he led a scheme that fraudulently obtained more than $1.04 million from US economic-assistance programs created during the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to reporting on the case, the alleged scheme involved the creation of fictitious companies, falsified documentation and fraudulent financial statements. The funds were allegedly diverted to personal accounts and used for private expenditures and real-estate purchases. US authorities are seeking his extradition on allegations including wire fraud, bank fraud and money laundering.

Gardea was placed under the authority of Colombia’s Fiscalía following his arrest, with extradition proceedings expected to continue through the agency’s international-affairs authorities. Colombian reporting subsequently confirmed the legality of his detention.

Panamanian national linked to alleged container trafficking network

The second case involved Ismael Abdiel González Pomares, a Panamanian citizen detained in Medellín’s Laureles neighborhood on July 21.

González Pomares was wanted by Panamanian authorities under an Interpol Red Notice for alleged offenses including drug trafficking, conspiracy and crimes against collective security. Colombian and Panamanian investigators reportedly identify him as a suspected senior figure in a transnational organization involved in moving narcotics through commercial cargo.

Authorities allege that the organization used contaminated commercial containers at the Port of Balboa in Panama to move drugs toward international markets. Reporting also says the investigation identified a sophisticated logistical structure and alleged infiltration of strategic port facilities. The operation involved cooperation between Colombian and Panamanian authorities, with support from the US Homeland Security Investigations agency.

González Pomares was placed at the disposal of Colombian authorities as the process for his eventual transfer to Panama proceeds.

Curaçao citizen wanted by the Netherlands

The third arrest involved José Manuel Rodríguez Dacova, a citizen of Curaçao wanted by authorities in the Netherlands on an alleged drug-trafficking offense.

According to Medellín authorities, Rodríguez Dacova was detained while travelling by road between Barranquilla and Medellín. His arrest was likewise carried out in response to an Interpol Red Notice and with extradition proceedings in mind.

Unlike the Gardea and González Pomares cases, publicly available reporting on Rodríguez Dacova provides fewer details about the underlying Dutch investigation. The Colombian authorities’ announcement identifies drug trafficking as the basis for the Netherlands’ extradition request.

29 Red Notice arrests recorded in 2026

The three arrests brought the number of people detained in Medellín during 2026 through Interpol Red Notices to 29, according to the city’s security authorities.

The municipality said these individuals were subsequently captured for extradition after the requesting countries formalized their respective requests. The detainees were placed at the disposal of the Fiscalía while judicial and diplomatic procedures continue.

The cases showed the distinction between an Interpol Red Notice and a conviction. A Red Notice is an international request to locate and provisionally detain a person pending extradition or a similar judicial process; it is not itself an international arrest warrant or a finding of guilt.

For Medellín, the arrests also form part of a broader effort to strengthen cooperation with foreign law-enforcement agencies as the city seeks to address criminal networks operating across national borders.

As of August 2026, no publicly confirmed development was identified that materially changes the status of the three July cases. The individuals remain subject to the respective extradition processes, with the Fiscalía responsible for Colombia’s proceedings and the requesting countries’ authorities responsible for pursuing the underlying cases.

Headline photo: A picture of one of the fugitives beside the Colombian authorities. (Photo provided by Medellín’s mayor’s office)

According to El Heraldo, which obtained the 209-page ruling, the Juzgado Cuarto Penal del Circuito con Funciones de Conocimiento de Barranquilla, presided over by Judge Martha Lucía Fábregas Araujo, convicted Kimberly Hutchinson Vargas, Gloria Hutchinson Garrido, José Gregorio Pérez Arteaga, Janett Vargas Gómez, Carlos Andrés Leal Chávez, Ostap Rafael Tapias Artuz, María Mónica Montero Castilla and Gina Maestre as co-perpetrators of estafa agravada en masa (aggravated mass fraud). The decision is a first-instance ruling and can be appealed before the Sala Penal del Tribunal Superior del Distrito Judicial de Barranquilla.

According to the investigation by the Fiscalía General de la Nación, as reported by El Heraldo, between 2012 and 2015 the defendants operated a corporate web built around companies including Global Brokers Asociados S.A., Grupo Constructores Aliados S.A.S., Grupo Empresarial Aliados S.A.S. and Alianza Grupo Empresarial. The pitch, El Heraldo reported, was simple and seductive: properties said to be under seizure, headed to judicial auction, or tied to negotiable mortgage debt, offered well below market value to buyers hungry for a home of their own.

In a 2016 bulletin, the Fiscalía said the companies, “through deception,” told clients the homes were assets held by the now-defunct Dirección Nacional de Estupefacientes (DNE) — Colombia’s former narcotics-asset agency — and that, although buyers paid the purchase price for the firms to handle the transfer, the properties were never delivered. The same property was sold under several contracts, and some units offered were not in any legal process at all, the Fiscalía said. While headquartered in Barranquilla, the network also operated in Cartagena, Valledupar, Montería, Santa Marta, Cali and Bucaramanga, according to the prosecution. By August 2016, the Fiscalía had registered more than 330 victims.

The court found that the offers never materialized. According to the ruling cited by El Heraldo, victims were “contacted by telephone, by email or in person, and summoned to formal physical offices located in recognized buildings in Barranquilla and other cities, which created an appearance of legality and solvency.” Buyers were shown listings, photographs, addresses and supposed case files — at times using tools such as Google Maps to prove a property physically existed — and were told the company held “a privileged right” to acquire it. They signed management, mandate or “good-faith offer” contracts, then handed over their money.

The funds, the ruling found, were not used to buy the promised mortgage portfolios or litigation rights but were diverted “to other business or personal ends,” or used to make partial refunds to earlier clients and keep the operation running, according to El Heraldo. When victims demanded their money back, they received bounced checks, new deadlines that came and went, or shuttered offices. In many cases, El Heraldo reported, the properties were never awarded, no real auction existed, or the same unit had already been sold to other buyers.

The ruling drew on at least 80 statements from victims and court officials, El Heraldo reported, documenting losses of $24.875 billion COP in payments to Global Brokers, $4.861 billion COP to Grupo Constructores Aliados, and $2.941 billion COP from people seeking homes. The human cost ran deeper than the balance sheet. As El Heraldo put it, over the years of the case “many were the people who died waiting for the delivery of the supposed property for which they had paid Global Brokers.”

The contrast between the victims’ losses and how the company’s money was spent surfaced early. At a 2016 detention hearing, the case prosecutor, Francisco Cuesta Manyoma, alleged that one of the firm’s directors, Eduardo Vargas Gómez, “lived the life of a rich man” — bankrolling a women’s football team he owned and, on one occasion, spending $1 billion COP (roughly $300,000 USD at 2016 exchange rates) in a single week “with a stunning blonde,” all with clients’ money, as reported by El Heraldo and Pulzo. The prosecutor added that some victims had sold their homes to invest in the scheme, and that one of them died “of moral grief” (de pena moral) in his living room after realizing he had lost everything.

On the sentence itself, the court imposed 114 months in prison — nine years and six months — on each of the eight, plus a fine of 838 monthly minimum wages (salarios mínimos mensuales legales vigentes), more than $1 billion COP, and disqualification from public office for the same period, according to El Heraldo. The judge acquitted all the accused of captación masiva y habitual de dinero (mass unlawful deposit-taking), finding the conduct did not fit the offense, and declared the concierto para delinquir (conspiracy) charge time-barred under the statute of limitations.

Here the passage of time did more than test the victims’ patience — it reshaped the outcome. According to El Heraldo, the court determined that five of the convicted — Kimberly Hutchinson Vargas, Gloria Hutchinson Garrido, José Gregorio Pérez Arteaga, Carlos Andrés Leal Chávez and Ostap Rafael Tapias Artuz — had already served their prison terms through the time they spent in preventive detention during the proceedings, and ordered their release; they remain liable for the fines. The remaining three were granted house arrest, subject to a compliance undertaking and a bond of two minimum wages.

The timeline shows how the case stretched across a decade. The Fiscalía moved against the network as early as 2016: in a July 2016 operation by the Cuerpo Técnico de Investigación (CTI) and military police, seven alleged members were captured, and company directors were placed under house arrest, the prosecution announced that August. The Fiscalía General de la Nación then filed its formal accusation in January 2017 against thirteen people, El Heraldo reported, charging aggravated fraud, mass deposit-taking, conspiracy and forgery of private documents. The preparatory hearing began in June 2017 and, given the number of defendants, defense lawyers, victims and pieces of evidence, ran across multiple sessions. The oral trial opened in January 2018. The verdict came on June 5, 2026.

It was not the first conviction in the saga. In 2019, a separate Barranquilla court sentenced Adonis Antonio Brugés Herrera, described as one of the masterminds of the scheme, to 143 months in prison and a fine of about $596 million COP, as Zona Cero reported at the time. El Heraldo had already chronicled the scheme as far back as 2017 and tracked its defendants through 2018.

Why it took so long

The scandal is not only what the fraudsters did; it is that the system took more than ten years to deliver a partial reckoning — and that, for several defendants, the punishment was effectively complete before the verdict arrived. “Justice delayed is justice denied,” the maxim holds, and the Global Brokers case is a study in the structural features of Colombian justice that produce that delay.

The first failure came before any courtroom. According to Zona Cero’s 2019 reporting, the Superintendencia de Industria y Comercio — the consumer-protection regulator — declined to investigate victims’ complaints and shelved them, with its consumer-protection investigations director concluding that no breach by Global Brokers had been proven and accepting the company’s claim that it had returned customers’ money. That claim, Zona Cero reported, proved false; it was the Fiscalía, not the regulator, that ultimately built the criminal case.

The courts themselves are chronically overloaded. According to the Corporación Excelencia en la Justicia, a respected judicial-monitoring nonprofit, congestion in the judicial branch has hovered around half of the docket for years. The same organization found that 93% of criminal complaints in Colombia never advance beyond the preliminary inquiry stage, and Asuntos Legales has reported that barely 5% of criminal proceedings end in a sentence. A complex, multi-defendant fraud trial competes for scarce hearing time against an enormous backlog.

Time also runs against the prosecution by law. Under Colombia’s accusatory criminal-procedure code, the clock on the statute of limitations restarts once charges are formally filed and then runs for a period tied to the penalty — which, combined with repeated hearing postponements, can let charges expire before a verdict. In Global Brokers, that is precisely what happened to the conspiracy count, which the judge declared time-barred.

Finally, the case illustrates how lengthy preventive detention can invert the order of justice. For five of the defendants, years held before a final verdict became the sentence itself — punishment served first, conviction confirmed later, with the appeal still ahead. Colombia’s Congress passed Ley 2477 of 2025 specifically to reduce judicial congestion and speed up decisions, but for the Global Brokers victims, the reform arrives a decade too late.

The ruling, El Heraldo noted, does not resolve what victims most want to know: whether they will ever recover the money they paid. It is a first-instance decision, and it can still be appealed.

Three developments over a single week in June have braided together to expose how Colombia’s health-oversight apparatus has become an instrument in the final stretch of the presidential race. At the center of all three is Daniel Quintero, the former mayor of Medellín who took office as National Superintendent of Health — head of the Superintendencia Nacional de Salud (National Health Superintendence) — in May despite facing more than 40 criminal and disciplinary investigations of his own. Within days, the office he now runs has been pointed squarely at the opposition’s presidential candidate, and the maneuver has split the very coalition it was meant to help.

An appointment the left now concedes “backfired”

The first thread surfaced on June 9, when Carlos Carrillo — who had just resigned as director of the National Unit for Disaster Risk Management (Unidad Nacional para la Gestión del Riesgo de Desastres, or UNGRD) — told Blu Radio that Quintero’s appointment had been “basically a shot in the foot for the campaign” of leftist candidate Iván Cepeda. Carrillo argued the decision — taken “a month before the elections” — cost Cepeda decisively in Antioquia, where, he said, “they beat us by almost 30 points.” Without that result, in his telling, “the winner of the elections is Iván Cepeda.” He said the Pacto Histórico (Historic Pact) “owes the people of Antioquia an apology,” and called handing the Superintendence to “those presumably crooked gentlemen, with all the investigations they carry,” an “enormous strategic error.”

That an ally would say so out loud underscores how exposed the appointment always was. As Finance Colombia reported in May, Quintero became the fifth health superintendent of President Gustavo Petro’s administration while carrying more than 40 criminal and disciplinary complaints tied to his 2020–2023 tenure in Medellín. The watchdog group Transparencia por Colombia (Transparency for Colombia) called the designation “inappropriate,” and Carrillo himself was quoted at the time noting that the Pacto Histórico “has no reason to bear the political cost of his legal troubles.”

“The charged official who left Medellín in intensive care now wants to pose as an anti-corruption defender by doing political favors for Cepeda.” — Centro Democrático

The most serious of those cases is the “Aguas Vivas” scandal, in which prosecutors at the Fiscalía General de la Nación (Attorney General’s Office) charged Quintero — alongside nine former officials and three private parties — with embezzlement (peculado), undue interest in public contracts, and malfeasance (prevaricato) over the reclassification of a 142,000-square-meter forest-reserve plot in Medellín’s El Poblado that allegedly inflated the land’s value. No conviction has been issued, and Quintero maintains his innocence. It is from this position — charged, awaiting trial, and his appointment under a nullity challenge admitted by the Consejo de Estado (Council of State) — that Quintero now wields one of the most powerful financial-oversight offices in the Colombian state, with authority over the EPS health insurers and the public funds that flow through them.

An election-eve probe aimed at the opposition candidate

The second thread arrived on June 15. That day, Cepeda announced a criminal complaint against his runoff rival, Abelardo de la Espriella, alleging the right-wing lawyer’s involvement in the “plundering of the health system” in the Caribbean region through the now-liquidated Salud Vida EPS. Within hours, Quintero announced that the Superintendence would “investigate the transfers made by these EPS to Joaquín Gutiérrez, his companies, and Abelardo de la Espriella,” framing it as a response to Cepeda’s allegations about “a group of EPS related to paramilitary leaders.”

Quintero put specific numbers on the claim. He described contracts “signed with health parafiscal resources for more than $18 billion COP” (about $4.5 million USD), set against what he called more than $160 billion COP (about $40 million USD) “diverted from Salud Vida EPS toward a front company in Panama.” He said the contract awarded to De la Espriella was not reported to the comptroller the Superintendence had designated at the time, citing the designated official’s statement that she “had no knowledge of the content and scope of the terms,” and asserted that records on the origin of those funds had been “extracted or eliminated” from the Superintendence’s databases in prior years. After reviewing more than 10,000 documents, Quintero said, the agency was forwarding copies to the Fiscalía, the Contraloría (Comptroller General’s Office), and the Procuraduría (Inspector General’s Office).

De la Espriella rejected the accusations outright, calling them a “smokescreen” driven by the proximity of the vote, insisting the contracts corresponded to “legitimate legal services” and that he would cooperate with the authorities. His campaign stressed — accurately — that opening an investigation “does not constitute a sanction” but a preliminary stage to gather information.

The timing did not escape the opposition. On June 16, the Centro Democrático (Democratic Center), the party of former president Álvaro Uribe that is backing De la Espriella, accused Quintero of weaponizing his office: “The charged official who left Medellín in intensive care now wants to pose as an anti-corruption defender by doing political favors for Cepeda,” the party said, pinning the system’s distress on the Petro government and citing “more than 2 million complaints, 313,000 tutelas [constitutional rights claims], medicine shortages, and a debt of more than $25 trillion COP owed to hospitals and clinics.”

The optics are conspicuous: an official who is himself charged, installed by the incumbent president weeks before the vote and whose own appointment is being litigated, has used the oversight powers of that appointment to open — and publicize — an investigation into the candidate running against the incumbent’s chosen heir, four days before the runoff.

A fight that spilled inside the left

The third thread shows the strategy turning inward. Also on June 15, Alianza Verde (Green Party) representative Catherine “Cathy” Juvinao criticized Cepeda’s decision to take the health fight to the courts, arguing that the way to win over independents and the center — the voters likely to decide June 21 — was “to recognize the mistakes of this government in health, withdraw the reform, and guarantee the negotiation of a new project,” not to move the programmatic debate “to the courts.”

Carrillo answered not by engaging the argument but by digging up Juvinao’s social-media posts from 2011 to 2013, when she was a fierce critic of the EPS and of Ley 100 (Law 100, the statute that created the current insurance-based system), and accusing her of having flipped: “She has made it sufficiently clear that between Iván and the EPS, she sides with the EPS… how power changes people.” The episode is telling on two counts. It places Carrillo — the same figure who days earlier had branded Quintero a crook and called his appointment a self-inflicted wound — in the position of defending the Cepeda camp’s health offensive against criticism from within his own ideological neighborhood.

Carlos Carrillo, director of the UNGRD under the later part of the Petro administration.

And it confirms that Juvinao’s misgivings are not the opposition’s talking points but a live anxiety inside the center-left: that judicializing the campaign in its final days may repel precisely the undecided voters both sides are chasing.

Why it matters

Taken together, the three developments trace a single arc. The appointment that Carrillo concedes already cost the left votes in Antioquia has now produced an official willing to deploy his office against the opposition candidate on the eve of the vote — and that deployment has, in turn, opened a rift between those on the left who see the health card as a winning attack and those who fear it alienates the middle.

For Quintero, the calculus carries real risk. The investigation he has launched is preliminary, and the underlying allegations against De la Espriella — which the candidate denies — remain to be tested by the Fiscalía and the courts, not by a Superintendence headed by a man awaiting his own trial. Should De la Espriella, a combative litigator who built his fortune defending the accused and who has never been shy about using the courts himself, prevail in the runoff he led after the first round, the man who turned a state oversight office into a campaign instrument days before the election would find himself uniquely exposed — still charged in Medellín, his appointment still contested, and now on record having targeted the incoming president. Quintero’s tenure was always expected to be temporary; a new head of state takes office on August 7 with the power to replace him. Whether the gambit damages De la Espriella or merely deepens Quintero’s own jeopardy is a question the June 21 runoff will begin to answer.

Headline image: Daniel Quintero and President Gustavo Petro during the swearing-in ceremony of the new health superintendent. Photo courtesy of the Presidency of Colombia.

A federal jury in the Southern District of Florida convicted Ramon Arellano Sandoval, 65, of Antioch, Tennessee, on charges of attempted sex trafficking of a minor and attempted production of child sexual abuse material involving a 14-year-old victim residing in Medellín, Colombia. A US federal district judge subsequently sentenced Arellano Sandoval to 30 years in federal prison, according to Alcaldía de Medellín Mayor Federico “Fico” Gutiérrez, who confirmed the sentence on May 21, 2026.

The case, prosecuted by the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida under case number 24-cr-20519, represents the tenth conviction obtained under a joint US-Colombia enforcement initiative targeting foreign nationals who travel to Medellín to sexually exploit minors. Three other US citizens previously sentenced in connection with the program include Stefan Correa and Manuel Poceiro, who each received life sentences, and Mohamed Anaswed, who received 21 years in federal prison.

According to court records and evidence presented at the February 24 trial, Arellano Sandoval exchanged thousands of text and video messages with the victim, who was 14 years old at the time, and who lived in a rural area near Medellín. Prosecutors presented evidence that the defendant knew the victim’s age, repeatedly solicited sexually explicit videos from her, directed her to produce illicit material in exchange for electronic payments, and traveled to Colombia to engage in commercial sex with her.

“The evidence showed that this defendant pressured a child to create sexually explicit videos and even traveled overseas to abuse her. That conduct is predatory, criminal, and intolerable.” — Jason A. Reding Quiñones, US Attorney, Southern District of Florida

The jury found Arellano Sandoval guilty of attempted sex trafficking of a minor, which carries a maximum sentence of life in federal prison, and attempted production of visual depictions of the sexual exploitation of a minor, which carries a maximum sentence of 30 years.

“The jury’s verdict delivered justice for a 14-year-old victim who was targeted and exploited by a 65-year-old man who knew exactly what he was doing,” said US Attorney Jason A. Reding Quiñones for the Southern District of Florida. “The evidence showed that this defendant pressured a child to create sexually explicit videos and even traveled overseas to abuse her.”

The investigation was conducted by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Miami under Special Agent in Charge José R. Figueroa, with operational support from HSI Colombia. Assistant US Attorneys Tim Farina and Camille Smith handled the prosecution. On the Colombian side, the arrest and evidence collection involved the Alcaldía de Medellín, the Policía Nacional through its Dirección de Protección y Servicios Especiales (DIPRO), the Fiscalía General de la Nación, and Migración Colombia.

“La justicia no tiene fronteras cuando se trata de proteger a nuestros niños, niñas y adolescentes,” Gutiérrez wrote on his X account, referring to cross-border judicial cooperation in cases involving the exploitation of minors. The mayor indicated the administration would continue pursuing similar prosecutions, stating that any foreign national traveling to Medellín to exploit minors would be pursued until obtaining a conviction, including in their country of origin.

‼️La justicia no tiene fronteras cuando se trata de proteger a nuestros niños, niñas y adolescentes.🚨Otro condenado más.

Ramón Arellano Sandoval, de 65 años de Estados Unidos, fue sentenciado a 30 años en prisión federal de ese país, por los delitos de intento de explotación… pic.twitter.com/mepkNuOURX

— Fico Gutiérrez (@FicoGutierrez) May 21, 2026

The Arellano Sandoval case follows a similar prosecution earlier in 2026 against Michael Jaime Inofuentes, also a US citizen, who was sentenced by the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia to 18 years in federal prison. Court evidence in that case established that Inofuentes sexually abused a 15-year-old in Medellín and paid for encounters in hotels, resulting in a pregnancy in early 2024. The investigation, triggered by a complaint from the victim’s mother to Colombian authorities, led to Inofuentes’s arrest in Miami. Prosecutors introduced WhatsApp conversations, financial transfers, and the defendant’s own admissions, which included statements that he had fathered other children in Colombia under similar circumstances. Related court documents and additional case information are available through the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov and through the PACER system at pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov under case number 24-cr-20519.

Ecopetrol S.A. (NYSE: EC, BVC: ECOPETROL) reported first-quarter 2026 consolidated revenues of 28.6 trillion COP, a decline of 8.7% from 31.4 trillion COP in the year-earlier period, as lower crude oil prices and reduced hydrocarbon production compressed the top line for Colombia’s state-controlled oil and gas company. Against that backdrop, a marked recovery in refining margins and disciplined cost management lifted EBITDA by 1.5% to 13.5 trillion COP, yielding a 47% EBITDA margin and partially offsetting the revenue headwind. At the Q1 2026 average exchange rate of approximately 3,700 COP per USD, the quarter’s revenues translate to roughly $7.73 billion USD and EBITDA to approximately $3.65 billion USD.

Embattled Ecopetrol CEO Ricardo Roa was appointed to the position by Colombian President Gustavo Petro after managing his political campaign. (photo: Ecopetrol)

Net income for the quarter reached 2.9 trillion COP (approximately $784 million USD), down 7.7% year-over-year, reflecting the combined drag of lower revenues, a sharply elevated effective tax rate of 37.1%, and a one-time charge of 1.2 trillion COP for the impuesto al patrimonio — Colombia’s government-mandated wealth levy on large corporations established to fund post-disaster reconstruction measures. The company is also subject to a 10% income tax surcharge applicable for fiscal year 2026, which is embedded in the reported effective rate. The aggregate tax burden absorbed a disproportionate share of operating improvement relative to prior periods, limiting the flow-through of refining gains to the net income line.

Total hydrocarbon production averaged 725.2 thousand barrels of oil equivalent per day (kboed) in Q1 2026, below the 745 kboed recorded in the 2025 annual average cited by management during the March 2026 general shareholders’ meeting. Domestic crude output represented the largest component at approximately 520 thousand barrels per day (kbd). Ecopetrol’s Permian Basin operations in the United States contributed 91.8 kbd, underscoring the continued strategic importance of the international segment. Gas production continued a multi-year declining trend that poses a medium-term domestic supply challenge; management has sought to address this partially through regasification capacity additions at Puerto Bahía and on the Pacific coast, expected to come online in the second half of 2026 with a combined contribution of up to 430 billion BTU per day.

The refining segment delivered the quarter’s most pronounced operational outperformance. Ecopetrol’s domestic refineries, led by Refinería de Cartagena, processed 417.5 kbd of crude throughput. The integrated refining margin rose to $17.3 USD per barrel, a 60% improvement over the same quarter of 2025, driven by favorable differential pricing between domestic crude benchmarks and refined product values alongside ongoing operational efficiency improvements. The Comisión de Regulación de Energía y Gas (CREG) and the Ministerio de Minas y Energía remain central to the regulatory framework governing downstream margins over the medium term.

The balance sheet carries significant structural and contingent risk items of direct relevance to institutional credit and equity holders. Gross debt stood at 108.1 trillion COP (approximately $29.2 billion USD), representing a leverage ratio of 2.3 times trailing EBITDA — a level that leaves limited room for further deterioration before debt covenants or rating agency thresholds become binding. Ecopetrol holds a receivable of 4.2 trillion COP (approximately $1.14 billion USD) from the Fondo de Estabilización de Precios de los Combustibles (FEPC), a government fuel price stabilization mechanism that represents a claim on the Colombian treasury with timing and recovery risk. A dispute with the Dirección de Impuestos y Aduanas Nacionales (DIAN) over value-added tax assessments totals 12.26 trillion COP (approximately $3.31 billion USD) in aggregate, of which 10.22 trillion COP relates to Ecopetrol’s consolidated operations and 2.04 trillion COP to Refinería de Cartagena. Both cases are under administrative and judicial review; no provisions have been recognized in the financial statements pending resolution, but the potential liability represents a material contingency relative to the company’s quarterly net income.

On the corporate development front, Ecopetrol disclosed three significant transactions during or following the quarter. The company agreed to acquire producing assets from Gran Tierra Energy (NYSE: GTE, TSX: GTE) for $92.4 million USD, adding Colombian upstream production inventory in basins where both companies have operated. In Brazil, Ecopetrol launched a tender offer for shares of Brava Energia (BVMF: BRAV3) at 23 BRL per share, seeking to expand its footprint in that country’s oil and gas sector. And in a transaction that would reshape the mid-size independent landscape in Colombia, the company reached an agreement to acquire Parex Resources (TSX: PXT) for $250 million USD; Parex is a Colombia-focused producer with a complementary asset base across the Llanos and other producing basins. Collectively, the three transactions signal that Ecopetrol’s capital allocation strategy under the current government continues to favor upstream consolidation despite the elevated leverage profile.

The exploration portfolio generated positive news announcements. The Copoazú-1 exploratory well, drilled in Colombia’s Llanos foothills region, was confirmed as a commercial discovery, adding to the domestic reserve base. The Sirius offshore project advanced through the Consulta Previa process — a legally mandated prior consultation with indigenous and Afro-Colombian communities required before development of projects in or near their territories — reaching a milestone in community engagement that brings the project closer to formal development sanction. The Agencia Nacional de Hidrocarburos (ANH) oversees the licensing framework within which both projects operate.

“Ecopetrol is listed on the New York Stock Exchange; we are governed by the strict regulations of US federal agencies. Agencies like OFAC and the SEC could intervene in the company and could even accelerate the payment of financial obligations, which would be extremely grave for Ecopetrol.” — Martín Ravelo, President, Unión Sindical Obrera (USO)

The ISA transmission segment, managed through Ecopetrol’s majority stake in ISA — Interconexión Eléctrica S.A., contributed stable regulated cash flows during the quarter. ISA completed 46 transmission reinforcement works across its Latin American concession portfolio. The segment also completed the acquisition of 100% of IE Madeira in Brazil, consolidating its position in that country’s power grid interconnection infrastructure. ISA further submitted a competitive bid for the Río Bueno–Puerto Montt high-voltage transmission line concession in Chile, demonstrating the group’s appetite for long-duration, inflation-linked infrastructure assets across the Andes region. For institutional investors evaluating Ecopetrol as a blended hydrocarbons-and-infrastructure holding, ISA’s consistent cash generation provides partial diversification from crude price volatility, though it does not insulate the consolidated entity from headline governance risk.

The most consequential variable for the investment thesis over the near term is Ecopetrol’s prolonged governance crisis. At the company’s general shareholders’ meeting on March 27, 2026, held at the Corferias convention center in Bogotá, minority shareholders loudly heckled president Ricardo Roa — with audible shouts of “¡Fuera, fuera!” reverberating through the hall — as debate over his leadership erupted into open confrontation. The meeting approved a dividend of 121 COP per share for minority holders and a 4 trillion COP distribution to the Colombian government as majority shareholder, payable in two installments by June 30, 2026. Despite the financial business conducted, governance overshadowed the proceedings.

Roa faces two separate judicial proceedings. The Fiscalía General de la Nación formally charged him in connection with alleged influence peddling related to the purchase of an apartment in northern Bogotá — charges he has denied. Separately, the Consejo Nacional Electoral (CNE) is examining whether campaign spending limits were violated during President Gustavo Petro’s 2022 presidential campaign, which Roa managed — an investigation that Finance Colombia has covered in detail. Angela Maria Robledo, Chair of the Board of Directors, defended the board’s decision to retain Roa at the March assembly, citing the constitutional presumption of innocence. However, four of the nine board members had already formally recorded their support for his removal at that point, exposing a divided governance structure at a time when strategic and operational decisions require unified leadership.

The Unión Sindical Obrera (USO), which represents approximately one-third of Ecopetrol’s workforce, issued a production strike ultimatum timed to a March 30 board meeting. Martín Ravelo, president of the USO, framed the leadership crisis explicitly in terms of US regulatory risk: “Ecopetrol is listed on the New York Stock Exchange; we are governed by the strict regulations of US federal agencies. Agencies like OFAC and the SEC could intervene in the company and could even accelerate the payment of financial obligations, which would be extremely grave for Ecopetrol.” Ravelo further warned that the company’s outstanding international debt — which he placed at approximately $30 billion USD and which is exacerbated by elevated interest rates — left Ecopetrol exposed to potential covenant triggers or early repayment demands in a scenario where the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) or the Office of Foreign Assets Control were to take enforcement action.

Following sustained pressure from the USO, minority shareholders, and opposition political figures, Ecopetrol’s board approved an extended leave of absence for Roa beginning April 7, 2026. Under the arrangement, Roa used accrued vacation through May 27, followed by 30 calendar days of unpaid leave beginning May 28, extending his absence through the end of June — a period encompassing Colombia’s presidential first round on May 31 and a potential runoff on June 21. Juan Carlos Hurtado Parra, the company’s executive vice president of hydrocarbons and designated first alternate to the presidency since November 2025, was appointed acting president. Hurtado Parra holds an MBA in International Oil and Gas and brings more than 28 years of energy sector experience to the acting role, having previously served as vice president of exploration, development, and production.

The political calendar creates a structural transition risk that sits above the operational and financial results as the primary concern for long-duration investors. Colombia’s incoming government, to be inaugurated August 7, 2026, is widely expected to appoint a new Ecopetrol board and select a new company president. That transition may bring material shifts in strategic priorities — including the pace of upstream investment, the approach to the FEPC receivable recovery, the trajectory of energy transition spending, and the capital allocation balance between the hydrocarbons segment and the ISA infrastructure platform. The Ministerio de Hacienda y Crédito Público and the Ministerio de Minas y Energía will both play key roles in establishing the post-election policy framework under which Ecopetrol operates. Institutional investors holding exposure to Ecopetrol via NYSE: EC or BVC: ECOPETROL must weigh Q1’s genuine operational improvement — most visibly in refining margins and EBITDA stability — against a governance and policy transition risk profile that is unlikely to be resolved before the August handover.

Ecopetrol’s Cartagena refinery (photo courtesy Ecopetrol)

Ricardo Roa Barragán, president of Colombia’s state-owned oil and energy company Ecopetrol, has been formally charged by the Attorney General’s Office (FGN) over his alleged responsibility in a case involving violations of campaign spending limits tied to President Gustavo Petro’s 2022 presidential campaign, which Roa managed.

The charging hearing took place Monday, May 11, during which Roa pleaded not guilty. The case will continue through the investigative stage, and no conviction has been issued against him.

This marks the second criminal case facing the executive. On March 11, 2026, prosecutors also charged Roa with alleged influence peddling involving a public official. Both investigations remain ongoing.

Read: The charge adds to a separate investigation over alleged violations of campaign finance limits during President Gustavo Petro’s 2022 presidential campaign.

The latest charges come weeks after Ecopetrol’s board authorized Roa to take vacation leave followed by unpaid leave through June 28, 2026, after Colombia’s presidential elections conclude.

The decision means Roa would return to the company only to participate in the transition process with the team designated by Colombia’s next president, who will take office on August 7, 2026.

Read: Ecopetrol Announces Temporary Leave for President Ricardo Roa Amid Investigations by Colombia’s Attorney General’s Office” by Finance Colombia.

Under Articles 396A and 396B of Colombia’s Criminal Law, individuals found responsible for receiving, administering or allowing prohibited campaign funds may face prison sentences ranging from four to eight years, in addition to fines and disqualification from holding public office if convicted.

Roa, however, retains the presumption of innocence while the judicial process continues.

Investigation into campaign financing

The case stems from the 2022 “Petro Presidente” campaign, which Roa Barragán managed. The matter had already resulted in administrative sanctions from Colombia’s National Electoral Council (CNE), which concluded that the campaign exceeded legal financing limits.

The Attorney General’s Office also said it identified alleged inconsistencies in the campaign’s financial reporting, claiming that first-round expenses were reported during the second round and vice versa.

As a result of that administrative investigation, the CNE referred the case to the Attorney General’s Office, which is responsible for conducting criminal investigations.

According to a statement from prosecutors, collected evidence suggests that campaign spending limits “were exceeded by $1.388 billion COP (around $370,000 USD) during the first presidential round and by $276 million COP ($73,000 USD) during the runoff.”

Prosecutors said the allegedly unreported or improperly reported expenses were linked to “hotel press conferences, breakfasts, loans, transportation, logistics, food services, financing for campaign-closing events, advertising materials and union contributions.

The investigation formally began in 2025 after the CNE determined there were possible irregularities involving campaign spending caps.

Petro defends Roa

President Gustavo Petro again defended Roa and questioned the basis of the judicial investigation.

“The Attorney General’s Office is repeating the same thing as the compromised CNE: that expenses incurred after the legal campaign period ended, such as the costs parties incur for election monitors to protect votes (…) are campaign expenses. Their so-called overspending is not overspending,” Petro wrote on X.

The president argued that several of the questioned expenditures took place after election day, when, according to his interpretation, the campaign had already formally concluded.

Colombia’s Inspector General’s Office (Procuraduría General de la Nación) has decided not to extend the three-month provisional suspension imposed on former Chief of the National Intelligence Agency (DNI), Wilmar Mejía, and Army General Juan Miguel Huertas, as part of a disciplinary investigation into alleged links with dissident factions of the former FARC guerrilla group.

Both officials had been temporarily removed from their positions after being mentioned in chats and documents found on devices belonging to alias “Calarcá,” one of the leaders of these illegal armed groups.

According to a document released by the Inspector General’s Office and published by the digital media La Silla Vacía, the “alleged conduct under investigation corresponds to events that occurred in 2024, when those involved were not yet public officials.” In that regard, the oversight body said it “will continue gathering evidence to determine whether such conduct extended into the period in which they held public office.”

“It is therefore necessary to continue the evidentiary process to establish whether the questioned conduct, in addition to being corroborated, extended into periods when those under investigation held public office,” the Inspector said in a statement.

Under Colombia’s legal framework, the Inspector General’s Office investigates public officials and individuals who manage public resources. If it is established that the alleged acts occurred prior to their appointment, the case would fall exclusively under the jurisdiction of the Attorney General’s Office (Fiscalía General de la Nación), which handles criminal investigations involving private citizens.

Ongoing investigation and background

The initial suspension was ordered on November 27, 2025, by the Inspector General’s Disciplinary Investigation Chamber and confirmed on December 23 of the same year, for a period of three months.

Later, at the end of March 2026, the National Intelligence Agency requested, by public communication, that the oversight body “clarify the scope of the measure,” which led to the recent decision not to extend the suspension, while the disciplinary investigation remains ongoing.

In parallel, the Attorney General’s Office continues investigations into the so-called “Calarcá case.” Attorney General Luz Adriana Camargo said there is “confirmed serious information from computers and cellphones about links between the group and a general and a DNI official,” according to statements reported by Caracol Noticias.

So far, no charges or convictions have been issued in connection with these cases.

Changes at the National Intelligence Agency

Amid the investigation, Wilmar Mejía confirmed his departure from the National Intelligence Agency on April 1, 2026, in an interview with Canal 1. “When the Inspector General’s Office lifted my suspension, I went to sign my reinstatement document and within 15 minutes I submitted my resignation. I am no longer the director of intelligence,” he said.

Following his resignation, President Gustavo Petro appointed him as director of the Financial Information and Analysis Unit (UIAF), the agency responsible for combating money laundering and terrorism financing in Colombia. The decision has drawn criticism, as Mejía remains linked to ongoing investigations by both the Inspector General’s Office and the Attorney General’s Office.

More information about the Colombia´s Intelligence Agency? Read “Colombia Intelligence Chief’s Resignation Exposes Instability and Possible Illegal Group Infiltration” by Finance Colombia.

On April 10, former Colombian Foreign Minister Álvaro Leyva Durán released a formal statement responding to his indictment by the Fiscalía General de la Nación. Leyva faces charges related to his 2023 decision to declare a passport procurement tender void, a process that involved the private security printing firm Thomas Greg & Sons. The former official characterized the legal proceedings as a politically motivated maneuver orchestrated from the Casa de Nariño.

The indictment for prevarication centers on Leyva’s intervention in the bidding process, which the Fiscalía interprets as a deliberate breach of administrative law. In his defense, Leyva maintained that his actions were necessary to address irregularities and ensure the application of the Constitución Política de Colombia. He argued that the prosecuting body’s thesis would criminalize the conduct of any public servant who identifies unconstitutional terms in a government contract.

“If that argument is accepted, then any official who declares a bidding process void because they find the terms and conditions unconstitutional or illegal should go to jail.” — Álvaro Leyva Durán, former Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Leyva also directed accusations toward his successor at the Cancillería, Luis Gilberto Murillo. According to the statement, Murillo suspended a subsequent legal bidding process to justify a state of emergency, which Leyva claims led to an unnecessary markup of approximately $30 billion COP. Furthermore, Leyva alleged that software contracts exceeding $10 billion COP were improperly managed and that the funds remain unaccounted for under the current administration.

The former minister’s statement included severe personal and political criticisms of President Gustavo Petro. Leyva alleged a lack of moral conduct by the head of state during international state visits and questioned the president’s sobriety in public settings. The letter further asserted that US authorities are currently investigating potential links between the executive branch and narcotics trafficking organizations.

Regarding the domestic political landscape, Leyva warned of perceived risks to the Colombian electoral process. He alleged that the administration has engaged in the illegal interception of political candidates and intends to undermine the integrity of future vote counts. Leyva concluded by affirming his intention to defend his record and his legal decisions before the Corte Suprema de Justicia.

COMUNICADO pic.twitter.com/7YYhoHJD4B

— Álvaro Leyva Durán (@AlvaroLeyva) April 10, 2026

Finance Colombia translation of Leyva’s recent open letter dated April 10th

Some time ago, I denounced in a public communiqué that Gustavo Petro had woven against me an atrocious persecution, as retaliation for my denunciations of his closeness to the world of drugs—denunciations that have led to the United States having him cornered today. There I warned that, from within the government, intrigues were being made to throw me in prison and that attempts would be made against my life.

Now, months later, the Attorney General’s Office accuses me of malfeasance (prevaricato) because I declared void a passport tender that, according to that same institution, was based on a “catch-all specifications document” (pliego sastre). For the accusing entity, I should not have fulfilled the obligation of applying the Constitution that I myself helped draft and, by seeking equality, I acted with malicious intent. The world turned upside down.

Understand the gravity: if that thesis is accepted, any official who declares a tender void because they find unconstitutional or illegal specifications must go to prison. So, faced with such a thing, the trial is welcome. I will give the battle in the Supreme Court with all my strength. Because I trust its magistrates, because my life has been a permanent struggle for Colombia, and because justice, reason, and the law are with me.

The acquittal will be the logical consequence of the process in which I will prove, with official documents and among other things, the following: that I left in motion a new, clean, and legal tender, which Minister Luis Gilberto Murillo suspended. That he thus justified another manifest urgency, completely unnecessary, and added an overcharge of nearly 30 billion pesos to it. And that he contracted software for more than 10 billion additional pesos, which was pocketed. All by hand-picking. All murky. All without control. Thus, by brute force, the door was opened to the passport debacle of today. I warned Petro of what was coming down on the country. But he kept silent.

Today I feel the pride of having helped unmask the boss of the mafia that has plunged Colombia into its darkest hours. I took office as his Foreign Minister with the hope of change. But then I came to know his life of vice and decadence. I was slow to understand his vileness and, surely, also slow to denounce it. But from my father Jorge Leyva Urdaneta, exiled for opposing the dictatorship, I inherited courage and respect for institutions; from Álvaro Gómez Hurtado, I learned the necessity of a just order; and from Misael Pastrana Borrero, I learned to think about social peace. So, faithful to myself and to the spirit of my mentors, I denounced in various letters the moral, political, and personal degeneration that I came to know in Gustavo Petro. And time has proven me right.

The President is an infamous being: international human trafficking is a scourge of the poor girls of Colombia, and he, in the middle of a state visit, ends up as a customer of a brothel in Lisbon; he claims to be a champion of peace, but full of hatred he violently divides society with his stale, classist, and racist rhetoric; he claims to fight drug trafficking, but he goes out into the public square drugged, drunk on alcohol and sectarianism, to mistreat and insult those who contradict him, while in the United States his ties to narcos are being investigated. And so, from scandal to scandal, the horrible night does not cease: the homeland trampled by its own President is today the object of all the mockery abroad.

Petro knows that the upcoming electoral process resembles the one recently lived in Chile. And, to avoid the same result, he illegally intercepts candidates, seeks to destroy them, and is already trying to cast a mantle of doubt over the vote count. But Colombia deserves a new dawn. And the radical left, which—turned into the President’s hooligan squad—forgives him everything, seems condemned to the desert. We shall see whether, in the future, they also forgive him for being responsible for their possible defeat. For my part, I remain ready for all battles: always embracing justice against oppression, and with the law as my spear, shield, and banner.