Photo: Colombian Attorney General Francisco Barbosa Delgado speaks to the press after the resolution was announced. (Credit: Fiscalía)

According to the US Department of Justice (DOJ), which announced the resolution of the charges earlier this month, Corficolombiana “conspired” with disgraced Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht to make illicit payments of more than $23 million USD to win favor with Colombian officials involved in the Ruta del Sol 2 highway project.

Specifically, between 2012 and 2015, the two firms were attempting to win a contract to build a 328-mile stretch of this major roadway that would be built in the northeast department of Norte de Santander, revealed the US investigators.

Resolving the Odebrecht Investigation

In resolving the investigation, the financial group acknowledged, as a whole, having carried out illicit actions in conjunction with Odebrecht, and Corficolombiana agreed to withdraw its appeals against charges from Colombia’s Superintendence of Industry and Commerce (SIC). It also committed to continue collaborating with both US and Colombian authorities for the next three years in their fight against corruption and economic malpractices.  

Additionally, the DOJ agreed to substantially reduce the initial fine of $40 million USD that had previously been sought, per reports.

Grupo Aval released a press statement highlighting that it was not the subject of the US DOJ charges, nor accusations from the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), while noting that the resolution focused on “actions taken by a former Corficolombiana executive” and that both it and Corficolombiana have been working to improve controls since the revelation.

“The DOJ and SEC recognized Corficolombiana’s and Grupo Aval’s extensive cooperation with the investigations and that, in the many years since the events occurred, Corficolombiana and Grupo Aval have enhanced their compliance programs and internal controls,” stated Grupo Aval.

It added that, “Corficolombiana and Grupo Aval consider this painful chapter closed, insisting on their commitment to the highest ethical standards and the continuous strengthening of their control environment.”

The Rotten Tentacles of Odebrecht Spread Wider

On the heels of the Grupo Aval settlement, Colombian Attorney General Francisco Barbosa announced from Washington that Luis Fernando Andrade, former head of the National Infrastructure Agency (ANI), had been indicted, along with 33 past and present government officials plus dozens more individuals, for their role in the Odebrecht scandal.

These two major developments represent just the latest in a near-decade-long scandal that has rocked the entire hemisphere.

Since its illicit activities came to light last decade, the scope and reach of Odebrecht’s corruption has only continued to be uncovered. The Brazil-based conglomerate, which has arms in sectors from construction and infrastructure to real estate and transportation, paid some $788 million USD in kickbacks for more than 100 public construction projects in 11 Latin American countries, as well as in Angola and Mozambique in Africa, according to official figures compiled by German outlet Deutsche Welle.

The enormity and duration of the scandal has only exacerbated the entire region’s outrage against corruption, which costs Latin America around $140 billion USD each year — or some 3% of regional gross domestic product (GDP) — according to Global Financial Integrity, a specialized consulting firm.

The Ongoing Political Fallout in Colombia

Beyond the national anger toward corporate sector corruption, in Colombia, Odebrecht illegal activities have stained some of the highest-ranking politicians, including the 2014 campaigns of both former President Juan Manuel Santos and the candidate he defeated, Óscar Iván Zuluaga, who currently faces criminal charges before the court.

Despite Santos not being implicated by the House of Representatives’ accusation committee, by a vote of six to three, the Procuraduría recently disqualified Roberto Prieto, the manager of his 2014 campaign, from holding office or contracting with the state for 12 years due to charges that he submitted false reports to the National Electoral Council (CNE) about contributions from the Brazilian multinational Odebrecht.

The attorney general also last month indicted former Zuluaga, the hand-picked candidate of powerful former President Álvaro Uribe, for falsifying a private document, procedural fraud, and illicit enrichment of individuals.

While former attorney general Nestor Humberto Martínez has not faced justice, his reputation has been greatly stained as then-head of the nation’s prosecution arm — in addition to his former ties to Grupo Aval. In response to the recent settlement announcement, Colombian President Gustavo Petro publicly chastised his political rival Martínez and described his ties with the Grupo Aval as an “incestuous relationship” that in the end “prevented a transparent trial in the case and the discovery of those bribed, who are currently senior political leaders.”

Gilinski and the “Paisas” (people from Medellín and its surrounding region) quickly fell out, and ended on bad terms, with litigation lasting for more than a decade. Things remained relatively quiet, with Gilinski tending to his many other business ventures, including plastics manufacturers, media. candy companies, and his own Colombian banks, GNB Sudameris, and Lulo Bank, as well as his own ATM network serving his banks, and many independent credit cooperatives (credit unions) throughout Colombia.

The Paisas, who in some ways have had a more modern business outlook than other regions of Colombia, created a cross-ownership structure of major Medellín businesses to prevent control by dominant families like in other parts of Colombia—think the Santo Domingo, Ardila Lülle, or Gilinski family business dynasties—and also impose a level of corporate governance not usually seen in Latin American countries. Medellín does not have a political or business dominant family “running things” behind the scene pulling all the strings, unlike most of Colombia, or most of Latin America. Instead, for example, El Pais reports that as of 2021, Medellín food conglomerate Nutresa had no shareholder with more than 1%. This means that professional management had the influence, and nepotism is kept out. There is a cross ownership structure among major Medellín companies that serves as a form of checks and balances, but also keeps control local to the Paisa community. This cross ownership structure is known as the Grupo Empresarial Antioqueño (GEA) informally, but such a structure does not exist formally. It is more of an informal clan with common interests rather than a legally defined entity. The major companies own shares in each other, and control is shared through voting shares and corporate boards.

Mr. Gilinski does not like this arrangement and has been seeking to vindicate himself against the Paisas. Though he is already reportedly Colombia’s 2^nd or 3^rd richest individual according to various rankings, that is not enough juice to take on the well-coordinated and insular Paisa business community. Gilinski himself sought a “patron” (sponsor, godfather, boss, backer) in Abu Dhabi’s Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, son of the founder of the United Arab Emirates. Since 2021, Gilinski and his backers have waged a war against the Paisas to take control of their jewels, namely Bancolombia, Grupo Sura, Nutresa, and Grupo Argos: All large, publicly traded international companies, and the economic engines of Medellín.

It is difficult to overstate the effect of this “invasion” as they see it, on the close knit Medellín business community. It is no overstatement to say that regardless of one’s opinion of any one of the companies, they are foundational to Medellín’s identity the way Microsoft is to Redmond, Washington or Apple is to Cupertino, California.

Former Bancolombia President Carlos Raúl Yepes came out of retirement and private life to take the microphone during the extraordinary shareholder meeting of Sura, Colombia’s largest insurance and asset management conglomerate, where Gilinski was trying to take control of the company, to make a stirring speech in which he directly addressed the “war” as many see it, between Gilinski and GEA.

Carlos Raúl Yepes:

I want, before anything else, to say that no one has ordered me to be in this assembly. I am no one’s adviser, I am no one’s spokesman, I am doing this because of my convictions. I do not have stocks in any of these companies, but last Monday I bought a share from Grupo Suramericana Inversiones to be able to intervene today. It cost me 38.600 pesos, plus taxes and commission, and here I am. And my one share is worth as much as Dr. Jaime Gilinski and his entire group’s. So I want you all to know that I am not a messenger, no one has sent me. I was at my house, and I saw what was happening, and I was seeing it with a lot of sadness. I felt bad, feeling like I had to stay silent. Just like no one was forcing me to stay silent, no one was forcing me to come here. I simply wish to express my sadness for this nightmare. I know what Juan Luis is feeling because he worked with me, same with the lawyers, the directors, and I know this suffering that comes with being at the front of these companies. Pressured, discredited, that which they call the GEA that does not exist, they are just convictions from some very important people who in the past, in the years 35, 40, 45, started companies, companies that today are the pride of the country, companies that today are demonstrating what they do on an international level, companies that have never, if you take notice, been involved in any scandals. Here the only thing we know how to do is work, work honorably, and we won’t let anyone discredit that.

Today, what I want is to expose my testimony, Dr. Gilinski, of the experience I had when we met all those years ago. You are an intelligent person, a bold one, you know I respect you, and you have always respected me. That’s why when I went with Gabriel [Jaime Gilinski’s father], when I was named president of the bank, I already knew him, from the respect I had for your father, and I still do. And at that time, we decided to buy a majority of the percentage of the Bank of Colombia, which Dr. Gilinski, very young, had acquired his majority percentage. I think that was the year ’94, and we did the business in the year ’97.

And it started really well, we were doing really well when the Asian crisis came. By the end of the year ’97, we wrote to Dr. Gilinski’s lawyers, I never forget the name, Davis Loan. They write to our lawyer in New York Michael Manny, and they tell us, we have some serious problems. In that transaction, we were scammed, and the war starts. A war that lasted a long time, a war where they told us, you have to suspend the assembly of the year ’98. A war that, with all due respect I say because I lived it, no one has told me what I am saying, I lived it. And what I did you will understand why, it was 12 years of suffering where I couldn’t watch my children grow, where we all suffered so much. We solved one lawsuit and we got three more, and we got accusations and complaints. And Dr. Gilinski, I haven’t told this, but this scar I have here, I called it Gilinski. When I had heart surgery, I broke down. I was 33 years old, and it was the first 6 years out of 11, almost 12 years of suffering.

I remember that at that time Julio Sánchez spoke of the dream team, and it was. How couldn’t it be the dream team, a great team of distinguished lawyers, comprised of Doctor Fernando Londoño Hoyos; Doctor Fernando Hinestrosa, Principal of the Externado; Doctor Néstor Humberto Martinez and his father, Doctor Néstor Camilo; Doctor Luis Fernando López, former superintendent of stocks, Doctor Gustavo De Greiff, the prosecutor, Doctor Jaime Bernal, a former attorney; dream team.

Former Bancolombia president Carlos Raúl Yepes blames his heart attack on battles with Gilinski (courtesy Bancolombia)

And I have to say one thing, because history needs to be relived, brought back, remembered, because now, what I want to end with, which is why I want to mention it: that legal dream team was a small part, because the way that it was structured, it was a business that started really well, and I don’t understand why with businesses you have to design a political strategy, a communication strategy, to push it forward, when the legal side is enough, the ethical side is enough; but no, there was that legal front, and do you know who was the legal vice president of the Bank of Colombia, who was at the front of the transaction and negotiation with the Colombian Banco de Sol? And who was my speaker partner, because Dr. Gilinski assigned him to be our speaker, and I spoke with him, and we stepped forward to have [Colombian fast food chain] El Corral burgers for lunch, when we were in the due diligence [process]? Sirs, the one who guided that legal strategy, and coordinated the entire strategy with Dr. Néstor Humberto Martinez, was Doctor Alex Vernot Hernández, today sentenced to 71 months in prison for bribing witnesses in criminal proceedings. That was the great ideologist. I don’t know what is today the relationship between Dr. Gilinski and Alex Vernot.

Gonzalo: Dr. Carlos Raúl, since we are in assembly-

Carlos Raúl: Don’t worry doctor, I’ll be done in 10 minutes. I won’t take longer than that.

Gonzalo: No. Five minutes, please.

Carlos Raúl: Thank you very much, Dr. Gonzalo. By the way, the first time I see Dr. Gonzalo Pérez in seven years, I haven’t seen him in a while, not even texting, just so you don’t go saying that I talk to him and they sent me here to do something.

And after that legal strategy, Dr. Gonzalo Pérez, there was the political strategy. Politics needed to be added to that. Dr. Néstor Humberto, who today is not on very friendly terms with Dr. Vernot from what I read, they met with a very passionate and intelligent chamber (congress) representative who used for the first time an article of the Constitution that allowed political control over private entities. And on May 9, 2001, they sat Dr. Jorge Rondolio and myself with the whole team, resisting that political onslaught in Congress.

That passionate and intelligent politician is now President Gustavo Petro. The political side was taken care of. Politics is part of that big strategy. Dr. Álvaro Uribe appointed Isaac the ambassador of Israel, and Dr. Juan Manuel Santos appointed Isaac at the UN, and Dr. Iván Duque did the same, appointing him as alternate ambassador. They are good recognized and meritorious people. And it’s just a small part, but it turns out that communication also needs to be involved, there has to be communication, we have to tell stories, have a narrative. And to hire a great political strategist, who is still working. Mr. Ángel Beccassino, today adviser to Mayor Daniel Quintero, the axis of the triumvirate, that’s what we were facing, that’s what was making us suffer.

And why do I tell this story? Because it’s relevant, and it’s relevant because it’s  (unintelligible), and it has different fronts of war, and I have Dr. Gilinski in front of me, and I know you know that what I’ve said is absolutely true, and please, if I haven’t said something correct, you’ll correct me. But all I want to say and end with, Dr. Gonzalo, and I’ll finish, is that this war has to be stopped. Enough of this nightmare. Business can’t be done like this.

Video recording credit: El Colombiano

Reports of the growing influence of Mexican cartels over criminal groups and drug trafficking in Colombia are raising questions about what role Mexican organized crime is taking in the post-FARC criminal underworld.

In January, Colombia’s conflict ombudsman, Carlos Negret, issued an alert about the influence of Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel in the municipality of Tierralta in the northern department of Cordoba.

“There, the Sinaloa Cartel is supposedly involved, financing the gangs and the Gaitanist Self-Defense Forces [the Urabeños],” Negret said.

Photo: This drug lab in Caqueta, Colombia, was producing coca paste before being busted by the Colombian military. (Photo credit: Comando General de las Fuerzas Militares)

The claim was supported by local community leaders, who told Semana magazine that they were being terrorized by a group comprised of elements of the now demobilized guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia – FARC), who had told communities they were financed by the Sinaloans.

According to the leaders, the armed group forced three members of the local community councils to leave because they supported the coca crop substitution program — a central part of the peace deal with the FARC.

The alleged displacement was the latest in a line of violent actions targeting local communities in the region, and followed the massacre of three people in early January 2018, and the abduction and murder of two community leaders in December. All incidents were linked to the Urabeños working in conjunction with ex-FARC fighters and commanders to occupy former FARC territories and sabotage the coca substitution program, according to a report by Verdad Abierta.

Semana’s investigation, however, claims that the financing of criminal groups is only part of the Mexicans’ strategy. An anonymous anti-narcotic police source told the magazine that the Mexicans are increasingly looking to cut out intermediaries from the drug trade by dealing directly with the territorial actors that control production zones, internal trafficking networks and dispatch points. Among those they have sought to build such direct relationships with are the ex-FARC mafia groups emerging in southwest Colombia, Semana reported.

The notion of the Mexicans seeking to take a more active role in the supply chain was later supported by comments, reported by newspaper El Tiempo, made by Colombian Attorney General Néstor Humberto Martínez, who claimed the cartels are also seeking to take direct control of cocaine production.

“The Mexican cartels have started acquiring coca plantations in Colombia,” he said. “We have captured agronomists and engineers from this country who are improving laboratories and the productivity of the plants.”

El Tiempo also cited an anonymous police source that stated that the Sinaloa Cartel had set up “offices” to coordinate trafficking activities in six Colombian cities: Tumaco, Cali, Bogotá, Bucaramanga, Cartagena and Medellín. According to the source, there are up to five people working in each of these offices. One of these is sent to processing laboratories to check the purity of shipments, another is in charge of cash payments, and the others coordinate logistics and bribes.

The source added that the reason for the Mexicans’ growing presence in Colombia was a mix of the unreliability of their Colombian partners and opportunism.

“They got tired of local narcos robbing them or not delivering shipments that had already been paid for,” he told the newspaper. “Also, the Mexicans are taking advantage of the power vacuum in the Colombian mafia. As well as the [Medellin Mafia] Oficina de Envigado, the other big structure the Gulf Clan [the Urabeños] is having an internal war and some members are in the process of surrendering.”

The notion that underworld dynamics are directing the Mexicans’ strategy was also voiced by a source from the other side of the criminal divide in an anonymous El Espectador interview with a Medellín drug trafficker.

According to the trafficker, the Mexicans began arriving in 2012 in an attempt to bring order to an underworld torn apart by conflicts that had disrupted the supply of cocaine. This helped establish a period of relative stability with the Sinaloa Cartel, which was working closely with both the Urabeños and the Oficina de Envigado as well as running its own trafficking routes.

However, this was disrupted in December 2017 by the ambitions of the recently captured leader of the Oficina de Envigado, Juan Carlos Mesa Vallejo, alias “Tom.” The trafficker told El Espectador that Tom was unhappy with arrangements so had opened up new trafficking routes cutting out both the Urabeños and the Sinaloa Cartel, and working instead with the Sinaloans‘ chief rivals, the Jalisco Cartel New Generation (Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generación – CJNG).

This conflict, he speculated, may have been behind Tom’s arrest in December.

“This is a fight between bosses, and it is clear that the bosses always fall because of a snitch. That is what we are seeing now in Medellín: war by treachery, now with Mexican involvement.”

However, he added, the Mexicans are not seeking to take over the Colombian underworld for themselves.

“It’s not that the Mexicans are in charge now, but what is true is that more and more you have to deal directly with them,” he said.

InSight Crime Analysis

There is little evidence and even less logic to the more hyperbolic claims that Mexican cartels are trying to take over the Colombian underworld. But there is no doubt that their presence and influence in the country has expanded rapidly in recent years, and they now appear to be developing new strategies for the post-FARC underworld.

Various Colombian conflict analysts, official sources consulted by InSight Crime, and the trafficker interviewed by El Espectador all concur that the Mexicans began taking a more direct role in drug trafficking in Colombia around 2012, a time when cocaine production levels had plummeted and the supply chain was disrupted by underworld conflicts.

Today, the Mexicans face new and very different challenges, which offer both risks and opportunities.

On one side, they are facing the loss of their most reliable trafficking partners: The FARC. The guerrilla group, which in some parts of the country worked directly with the Mexicans, has demobilized, while the Urabeños are wracked by a leadership crisis and local rebellions that likely signal the group’s end as a united national network.

In addition to seeking out new partners to replace these lost relationships, it is likely that the Mexicans are also taking a more hands-on role to ensure this instability does not affect product quality and the reliability of delivery. This is likely the reason behind the now permanent presence of Mexican representatives in Colombia to coordinate logistics and oversee production sites.

However, these upheavals also offer an opportunity for the Mexicans to cut out intermediaries in the drug trafficking chain and so maximize their profits.

In today’s Colombian underworld, cocaine production, internal trafficking, and dispatching are handled by local territorial groups, which normally control no more than one or two links in the supply chain. These different groups are commonly coordinated by Colombian drug traffickers, some of which are commanders of criminal groups such as the Urabeños or the FARC dissidents, while others are independent traffickers who use brokers to string together the different links of the supply chain.

If the Mexicans can establish direct relationships with the different territorial actors, working as their own brokers to build their supply chains, then they could break their dependence on the traffickers and increase their profits exponentially. This strategy would explain the reports of Mexicans financing local criminal groups, buying directly from production nodes and organizing their own international dispatches.

The reports about Mexican involvement in the Colombian underworld currently emerging suggest the cartels may well be pursuing both strategies concurrently. They are clearly still working closely with established traffickers, especially those in the cocaine trafficking hubs of Medellín and Urabá. However, in other regions, such as Nariño in the southwest, they appear to be cutting out the middlemen and working directly with territorial actors, above all with the emerging new ex-FARC mafia groups.

The strategy allows the Mexicans to hedge their bets. They can rely on Colombian actors’ contacts and expertise to maintain a steady supply of high-quality cocaine, while also exploring alternatives that not only offer them an insurance policy against renewed Colombian instability or the breakdown of relationships, but the potential to expand their own profits.

This article, written by James Bargent, was originally published by Insight Crime, a Medellín-based foundation dedicated to the investigation and analysis of crime and security in Colombia and Latin America. It has been reprinted with permission.

The assailant is believed to have tossed an explosive from a motorcycle at the station early in the morning in the country’s largest city on the Caribbean coast, according to media reports.

Photo: Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos visits one of the people wounded during the Saturday morning attack in Barranquilla. (Credit: Presidencia de la República / SIG)

Cristian Camilo Bellón Galindo was quickly arrested in connection with the crime and is being charged with five counts of homicide, 42 counts of attempted murder, aggravated terrorism, and the use of explosives.

The 31-year-old is being held in Barranquilla, where Colombian Attorney General Néstor Humberto Martínez arrived on Saturday to oversee the investigation, saying definitively that “we have absolute certainty” that Bellón had carried out the fatal act.

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos condemned the “cowardly attack” and expressed solidarity with the victims and their families. The head of state also flew to the city and visited the wounded in a Barranquilla hospital on Saturday to show the nation’s support and thank them for serving Colombia.

The president tried to assuage local fear of subsequent attacks by ordering an additional 1,500 national police officers to the city to increase overall security.

Each year, Barranquilla hosts Colombia’s largest Carnaval celebration — one of the biggest tourist draws in the country — with this year’s annual week of parades, music, and festivities beginning in mid-February.

Santos, on Twitter, stated that the extra law enforcement personnel had already been scheduled to go to the city to support security efforts during Carnaval and that he was simply moving forward their arrival date.

Attorney General Martínez said in a statement that Bellón is suspected to have perpetrated “terrorist activity to generate anxiety in the city in this pre-carnival period.”

He urged anyone with more information about the attack or the suspect to contact the office of the attorney general by calling (321) 394-5182.

Corruption at the state level is so rampant that it could lead to budget deficits. The practice costs Colombia $7.5 billion USD annually, or nearly 10% of the federal government’s budget, according to a 2016 report from the inspector general’s office.

Others put the cost of corruption much higher — by nearly double. Colombia’s comptroller, General Edgardo Maya Villazón, has put the cost of the free-for-all greed-fest that is Colombian corruption at as much as $14 billion USD per year. And research conducted by the Colombian think tank Dejusticia found that, on average, a staggering 50 trillion pesos ($16.6 billion USD) are lost to corruption annually.

Colombians are increasingly fed up with the pervasive corruption present from the highest halls of power all the way down to the street. Some 30% of Colombians said they have had to bribe health officials, public utilities, or police in order to access basic services, according to a report released by Transparency International, a Germany-based NGO that tracks global corruption trends.

Colombia also ranks 90th on Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index, an annual report that catalogs the world most and least corrupt countries based on the perceptions of their citizens. Out of 176 nations surveyed, Denmark topped the list as the least corrupt, while Somalia came in last.

Looking at the vast sums involved and poor perception offers a broad overlook of the scourge of corruption in Colombia. The following presents a run-down of seven of the most significant home-grown and international corruption scandals that have implicated Colombian politicians and businessmen — and sent many of them to prison.

1. El Cartel de la Toga (The Cartel of Robes)

After Colombia’s top corruption-fighting official was arrested on, well, corruption charges in July, it set off a chain-reaction that shook the credibility of the nation’s judicial systems to its foundations. In early June, according to law enforcement officials, former anti-corruption chief Luis Gustavo Moreno and an associate made a series of trips to Miami, where they met with Alejandro Lyons, the former governor of Cordoba province. Lyons, who a resident of Miami, was under surveillance by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), when Moreno allegedly took a $10,000 USD bribe from Lyons, and he also bribed the second man for some $130,000, in exchange for disrupting the criminal corruption case Lyons faces in Colombia.

Moreno now sits behind bars pending trial. Since then, he has reportedly agreed to demands to name names in the vast web of corruption in the Colombian court system in exchange for a guarantee he will not be extradited to the United States, where he also is wanted for taking bribes and extortion. And what he has revealed has triggered a crisis of confidence even in a country where the bar is set so low.

READ MORE: Top Official in Colombia’s Fight Against Corruption Arrested on Bribery Charges

Among the subsequent revelations is that five sitting and former Supreme Court justices may have accepted bribes from senators and other politicians to drop charges or render favorable verdicts in cases they faced. Additionally, at least 10 Colombian senators allegedly bribed the justices, including Musa Besaile, who confessed to bribing Justice Leonidas Bustos with more than $600,000 USD to obstruct an investigation into his alleged ties to paramilitary death squads.

The case has been dubbed “El Cartel de la Toga” (The Cartel of Robes) by the Colombian press, referring to the black robes worn by judges. Despite Moreno turning state’s evidence and implicating more than two dozen judges, senators, mayors, and governors, it’s anyone’s guess as to whether they will be prosecuted. Both the judicial and legislative branches are so riddled by corruption that there is no untainted government body that necessarily retains the legitimacy to carry out judicial proceedings.

2. Odebrecht Bribery

The Brazilian construction giant’s name has become synonymous with corruption. For years, the conglomerate has bribed public and private officials of at least a dozen Latin American countries, and other nations across the world, to secure around 100 infrastructure projects, generating $3.3 billion USD in shady deals.

In Colombia, between 2001 and 2016, about $11.1 million USD in bribes were paid, according to settlement documents from the U.S. Department of Justice. The illicit funds were used mainly to win the two public works contracts for the paving of the Ruta del Sol highway and to extend the Ocaña-Gamarra highway.

READ MORE: Former Colombian Official Arrested for Allegedly Taking $6.5 Million USD Bribe

Around 20 former Colombian cabinet ministers, senators, and businesspeople have been implicated in the corruption scandal. On November 15, the Public Prosecutor’s office opened an investigation into the alleged involvement of eight additional congressmen.

Previously, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos and his rival in the 2014 presidential election, Oscar Ivan Zuluaga were both accused of receiving campaign contributions from Odebrecht of $1 million USD and $1.6 million USD, respectively. Both politicians denied knowing the source of those large contributions.

3. The Panama Papers

The unprecedented leak of 11.5 million documents from a Panamanian law firm in May 2016 revealed the extent to which the rich, famous, and powerful move their assets to tax havens around the world. The release of the massive trove of documents — which dwarfed even the biggest-ever leak from WikiLeaks — showed how the Panama City-based law firm Mossack Fonseca set up a web of shell companies to shelter money and property of hundreds of thousands of people around the world, including heads of state, politicians, public figures, actors, and sports stars like Argentinian footballer Lionel Messi.

While offshore business entities are legal, teams of journalists in more than 80 countries who poured over the documents found that Mossack Fonseca shell corporations were also at times used for illegal purposes, including fraud, tax evasion, and evading international sanctions. The names of 1,245 Colombians appear in the Panama Papers.

READ MORE: Multiple Businesspeople Arrested in Colombia for Panama Papers Crimes

Though relatively little legal fallout initially resulted from the Panama Papers in Colombia, 14 businesspeople in the country were recently arrested in October, including high-profile businesswoman Luz Mary Guerrero, a legal representative of the payment service company Efecty; Sara Guavita, legal counsel for the courier firm Servientrega; and Juan Esteban Arellano Rumazo, a Mossack Fonseca lawyer in Colombia. All three have been detained awaiting trial, and they face a long list of charges ranging from falsifying documents to illegally sheltering millions of dollars in taxable income, which carry penalties of up to 12 years in prison.

On December 5, the Public Prosecutor’s office announced that another 24 people would face charges related to information gleaned from the Panama Papers, including lawyers, accountants, and auditors of seven Colombian companies. So far, a total of 44 Colombians have been indicted on charges ranging from falsifying documents to money laundering since prosecutors began their investigations in October 2016.

4. Reficar Oil Refinery

The Reficar oil refinery in Cartagena is the biggest in South America. A giant modernization project kicked off in 2007, with the aim of doubling the refinery’s output. The projected cost of the project was $3.3 billion USD, but it ended up costing more than $8 billion USD.

After the story was made public, Colombian Attorney General Néstor Humberto Martínez opened an investigation into the massive overspending of taxpayer money at the refinery. They discovered that the main contractor, a U.S.-based infrastructure firm called CB&I, treated Colombian state funds like a limitless treasure-trove and work was subcontracted out to a total of 2,460 third parties.

READ MORE: Odebrecht Pleads Guilty Bribery Charges, Agrees to $3.5 Billion USD in Penalties

Bills for labor and materials were sometimes submitted multiple times, and in other instances, the wrong type of materials or equipment were purchased instead of what was required. Colombian taxpayers also footed the bill so that Reficar executives could drink and throw lavish parties, and $16 million was alleged to have been spent on prostitutes.

In April this year, six Reficar executives and two CB&I officials were indicted on charges including embezzlement, fraud, bribery, and misappropriation of funds, among others. All eight have pleaded not guilty to the charges. Prosecutor Martínez is seeking jail time for all of the accused. Investigations are ongoing.

5. Carrusel de la Contratación (Contract Carousel)

The so-called Carrusel de la Contratación (Contract Carousel) corruption scandal, which first came to light in June 2010, involved officials funneling money earmarked for Bogotá’s TransMilenio transit system through a series of fictitious companies and consultancies. Each layer was said to skim off about 6% of the funds they received, which was considered their “commission,” but the fake companies didn’t do any actual work.

A series of investigations revealed just how deep the rabbit hole went — implicating former Bogotá mayor Samuel Moreno, his brother, city comptroller Miguel Ángel Moralesrussi, the head of the city’s Urban Development Institute (IDU) Liliana Pardo, and at least 11 other senators and businesspeople.

All but one were convicted of crimes including issuing contracts without legal compliance, undue interest in the conclusion of contracts, embezzlement, and bribery. The guilty parties were given prison sentences of various lengths, with the disgraced former mayor sentenced to a total of 24 years behind bars. The former IDU director and ex-comptroller were arrested earlier this year, and both are currently in prison awaiting sentencing. Collectively, the “Dirty 15” were also ordered to repay what they stole, to the tune of 17.5 billion pesos (roughly $58.8 million USD).

The wholesale plunder of public money meant that construction work on the Calle 26 TransMilenio Station came to a halt, and completion was delayed by nearly two years.

6. Ecopetrol and PetroTiger

Colombia’s state oil company has a long and storied history of corruption. In 2014, the company earmarked 30 billion pesos ($10 million USD) to invest in social development projects for communities in the company’s exploration zones in the departments of Meta, Putumayo, and Huila. Ecopetrol officials signed a series of contracts with a government-funded social development organization called Corporación País Rural.

But not one peso ever went to improving the conditions of people in the oil exploration zones — two Ecopetrol managers and two members of Corporación País Rural simply divided up the 30 billion pesos amongst themselves. It took prosecutors two years, but eventually all four were convicted of stealing the money and given prison sentences.

READ MORE: Colombia Shows No Improvement on Corruption Epidemic in New Study

In 2012, former Ecopetrol official David Durán Flórez took $333,500 USD in bribes from the British Virgin Islands-based oil and gas company PetroTiger in exchange for a $39.6 million USD contract to be given to a PetroTiger partner company called Mansarovar Energy. The bribe was placed into a bank account in New York and then laundered through a shell company set up by Durán’s wife.

Colombian investigators, working with their U.S. counterparts, found evidence of illicit personal enrichment at the highest levels of both Ecopetrol and PetroTiger. In November last year, Durán and his wife pleaded guilty to a host of crimes that included corruption, accepting bribes, and money laundering. Durán was sentenced to 16 years in prison, and his wife, Elgui Hohanna Navarro Carvajal, was given seven years behind bars. Also last year, the now-former president of PetroTiger’s subsidiary in Colombia, Luis Francisco Guinard, was sentenced to six years’ house arrest for his role in the corruption and bribery scheme.

7. InterBolsa Manipulation

Founded in 1991, InterBolsa grew to become the biggest investment brokerage in Colombia and, at its peak, accounted for about 25% of all investments made in the country’s stock market.

Over a period of nine years, the firm dabbled in stock manipulation, tax evasion, money laundering, embezzlement, bribery, and other financial misdeeds that left the brokerage strapped for cash. In November 2012, the government liquefied InterBolsa after it defaulted on $11 million USD loan.

READ MORE: Former Justices Face Investigation in Yet Another Colombian Corruption Scandal

A slew of criminal investigations ensued, and authorities discovered that roughly 18,000 investors were swindled out of 300 billion pesos ($100 million USD). The now-defunct investment brokerage was ordered to partially pay back investors a total of $44 million USD.

Then-InterBolsa head Tomás Jaramillo and Juan Carlos Ortiz, founder of the firm’s “premium” investment fund, pleaded guilty to a host of financial crimes. In March, 2016, both men were sentenced to serve house arrest five years and nine month. Each was also ordered to pay a fine equivalent to 100 Colombian minimum wages, or 69 million pesos ($23,000 USD).

The Future: Fighting Corruption by Referendum?

Despite the very public cases mentioned above, corruption is a crime that mostly goes unpunished in Colombia. There are 1,100 mayors and governors in the country, but there has been more than 1,600 cases of malfeasance investigated and politicians sanctioned, meaning that many have committed multiple crimes, yet still hold public office. Only 359 of those charges were against officials involved in corruption — corrupt officials know they can just bribe their way out of those charges.

What’s more, the UN Committee for Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights has raised concerns about the problem. It found that between 2012 and 2016, a paltry 1.6% of Colombian corruption cases led to a conviction, according to research conducted by Vice Colombia.

READ MORE: Where Do Colombia’s Presidential Candidates Stand on Business, Corruption?

For those looking for a silver lining in all this, we’ve found one for you. This year, a signature campaign organized by Colombian senator and anti-corruption activist Claudia López calling for tougher penalties against the corrupt managed to gather over four million citizen signatures — more than double the two million needed to push for reform. This initiative is the first step that could lead to a national referendum on the issue in 2018.

With the courts, legislature, and executive branch all ensnared in one scandal or another, it seems that the best hope for defeating the cancer that is corruption comes from the Colombian people themselves.

(Image credit: Panama Papers banner design | Free vector by Vexels)

Luis Gustavo Moreno Rivero, who previously led the anti-corruption unit within the office of the attorney general before being arrested late last month, is expected to make his plea on Friday, July 14, in front of the High Court of Bogotá in the Colombian capital, according to various reports.

His lawyer, Francisco Bernate, said that Moreno is prepared to accept responsibility for his actions and provide relevant information to authorities in both Colombia and the United States if requested. With cooperation in the case, Bernate said he believes his client can receive a sentence of between six to eight years in prison.

“If [Colombia’s] attorney general or the U.S. authorities will take into account that he can provide information, he is willing to give it,” said Bernate, according to Colombian media outlet CM&.

Bernate told the media that Moreno also plans to seek an express extradition to the United States and has requested that Friday’s proceedings be conducted by teleconference in order to ensure the security of his client.

According to case documents from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Moreno allegedly took a $10,000 USD down payment of a bribe during a meeting in South Florida with a former Colombian governor who has been facing embezzlement charges in his home country.

The initial payment provided by disgraced former Córdoba governor Alejandro Lyons Muskus, which was expected to the first installment of a $130,000 USD sum, was allegedly being handed over in exchange for Moreno’s “ability to control the investigation” against the governor, according the DOJ.

Moreno, who has been under investigation by U.S. law enforcement dating back to at least November 2016, was apprehended on June 27 in Bogotá. Among the reported charges are conspiracy to launder money with the intent to promote foreign bribery.

“With indignation and profound institutional pain,” said Colombian Attorney General Nestór Humberto Martínez in a statement after the arrest, “I am obliged to inform the public that…Luis Gustavo Moreno Rivero has just been captured…for conduct that seriously damages our institutional integrity.”

Earlier this month, Luis Gustavo Moreno Rivero, who had served as the national director of anti-corruption in the office of Colombia’s attorney general, took a $10,000 USD down payment of a bribe during a meeting in South Florida with a former Colombian governor who faces embezzlement charges in his home country, according to case documents from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).

The initial payment, the first installment of a previously-agreed-upon sum of $130,000 USD, was allegedly being handed over in exchange for Moreno’s “ability to control the investigation” against the governor, according the DOJ. Moreno, per “recorded conversations,” presumably obtained through the cooperation of embattled former Córdoba governor Alejandro Lyons Muskus, had also agreed to “inundate his prosecutors with work so that they would be unable to focus” on the investigation, stated the DOJ.

On the strength of this evidence, Moreno, who has been under investigation by U.S. law enforcement dating back to at least November 2016, was apprehended in the Colombian capital on a warrant issued by Interpol in France. He has been charged with conspiracy to launder money with the intent to promote foreign bribery.

The now-disgraced public servant was taken to La Picota Penitentiary in the Colombian capital where Moreno will be held with the expectation of being extradited to the United States, said Colombian Attorney General Néstor Humberto Martínez.

“With indignation and profound institutional pain,” wrote Martínez in a statement, “I am obliged to inform the public that…Luis Gustavo Moreno Rivero has just been captured…for conduct that seriously damages our institutional integrity.”

Martínez condemned such behavior that defies the “highest trust” and thanked law enforcement officials in the United States — including the DEA, FBI, and IRS — for their cooperation “in combating the scourge of corruption that affects both the integrity and transparency of public administration.”

Leonardo Luis Pinilla Gómez, a lawyer from Colombia who allegedly aided Moreno as an intermediary and was present in Florida, was also arrested and will be facing the same charges, said Martínez.

Lyons, the former governor facing embezzlement charges, was not identified in the statement from the DOJ. But Martínez did reveal his identify in an announcement and said that the former governor has offered “collaboration with the Colombian authorities.”

At the time his comments were made public, Martínez said he was scheduled to soon meet with U.S. Deputy Attorney General Kenneth Blanco to collaborate further  on the Moreno case and discuss ways to “further strengthen our anti-corruption efforts.”

While outlying the results of the case and confirming the arrest of Moreno, Martínez also announced that Alberto Salas, who has previously worked in Colombian tax collection authority DIAN, has been appointed as the new head of his office’s anti-corruption efforts.

The high-profile international case comes at a time when many Colombian politicians, up to President Juan Manuel Santos, have been ensnared in corruption scandals. Late last year, Brazilian engineering and construction firm Odebrecht, along with one of its subsidiaries, settled region-wide bribery charges brought by the DOJ for an historic, record-high sum of at least $3.5 billion USD in penalties.

DOJ documents show that Odebrecht paid at least $11 million USD in bribes within Colombia dating back to early this century to win rigged bids for two infrastructure projects. At least two former public officials in Colombia have been arrested for their alleged role in the crime. Links have also been established between illicit Odebrecht funds and the election campaigns of Colombian politicians, including Santos.

“I am deeply sorry and ask forgiveness from Colombians for this shameful act that should never have happened and that I have just learned about,” said Santos in a statement in March. The president has maintained that the funds were accepted by members of his campaign without his knowledge.

In settling the case in December 2016, Odebrecht admitted to paying at least $788 million USD in bribes, mostly within Latin America but also two win bids in two African nations.

The DOJ documents state that the company, between 2001 to 2016, handed out bribes to win more than 100 projects in Brazil ($349 million USD), Venezuela ($98 million USD), the Dominican Republic ($92 million USD), Panama ($59 million), Angola ($50 million USD), Argentina ($35 million USD), Peru ($29 million USD), Ecuador ($33.5 million USD), Guatemala ($18 million USD), Colombia ($11 million USD), Mexico ($10 million), and Mozambique ($900,000 USD).

In a coordinated operation this afternoon, law enforcement, led by the nation’s attorney general and National Police, captured four of the suspects in Bogotá and intercepted the other four in El Espinal, a city in the department of Tolima located almost 100 miles to the southwest of Bogotá.

Colombian Attorney General Néstor Humberto Martínez said that the eight people — four men and four women — now in custody will be prosecuted for terrorism, homicide, kidnapping, theft, and conspiracy for their alleged role in perpetrating the deadly explosion in a women’s bathroom of the Andino shopping mall on the day before Father’s Day that has shaken the nation for the past seven days.

“The full weight of the law will fall on those responsible,” said Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos on Twitter.

The attorney general said that the investigation produced evidence linking the suspects to the People’s Revolutionary Movement (MRP), a organized armed group, which may have only formed in 2016, that the attorney general said has claimed responsibility for attacks in the past.

Evidence obtained thus far also suggests the perpetrators may have had a role in up to 14 other known attacks carried out since 2015 in the capital and the Risaralda departmental capital of Pereira. That investigation remains ongoing, according to Martínez, who thanked the many Colombians who have come forward in the past week with information to help authorities in their casework.

Troublingly, Martínez also revealed that two of the people arrested today had been detained earlier this year amid suspicion of plotting to carry out an attack in Bogotá. A judge, however, apparently ruled that the evidence was not sufficient to put them away, according to Colombian newspaper El Tiempo.

On Twitter, Bogotá Mayor Enrique Peñalosa commended the work of the Bogotá police and attorney general for the capture of the alleged Andino attackers. “Bogotá will not bow to terrorism,” wrote the mayor.

Peñalosa also pledged ongoing support for Pilar Molano Villamizar, who he recently learned has lost her leg due to injuries suffered during the explosion.

Lady Paola Jaime Ovalle and Ana María Gutiérrez were the two Colombian women who died in last Saturday’s attack. Julie Huynh, a French woman who had been volunteering in a lower-class Bogotá neighborhood, was also killed by the blast.

Photo: Attorney General Néstor Humberto Martínez addressed the nation one week, almost to the hour, of the deadly bomb attack that killed three in Bogotá and shook the nation on June 17. (Credit: Colombian National Police)

“I am deeply sorry and ask forgiveness from Colombians for this shameful act that should never have happened and that I have just learned about,” said Santos in a statement.

Though he didn’t mention the source of the financing by name, the statement came amid blowback over the ongoing and expanding region-wide corruption scandal surrounding Brazilian construction firm Odebrecht SA that has ensnared politicians throughout Latin America.

Despite the recognition, Santos also stressed that, while violating the ethical and accounting norms of the campaign, this transgression cannot be presumed to have stemmed from acts of corruption in his administration. He further called on authorities to “investigate all the decisions of my administration and sanction those responsible for any act of corruption.”

In an interview yesterday with Bogotá’s Blu Radio, former Santos campaign manager Roberto Prieto, while saying that the president had no knowledge of any payment and “absolutely nothing to do with it,” did acknowledge that Odebrecht had paid for some two million election posters during the 2010 campaign.

The admission comes a little over a month after the nation’s attorney general revealed in February that some $1 million USD may have been paid from Odebrecht to Santos’ subsequent presidential campaign for re-election in 2014. Following that announcement in February, Prieto denied the claims, saying that “never have I even shared a coffee” with the man alleged to have taken the bribe from Odebrecht. Camilo Enciso Vanegas, secretary of transparency for the Santos administration, also denounced the allegations at the time as being rooted in an attack by political opponents.

Other high-profile fallout in Colombia over the Odebrecht scandal has included: the arrest the two officials charged with receiving some $11 million USD in bribes, former senator Otto Nicolás Bula and former deputy transport minister Gabriel Garcia Morales; the government terminating two major contracts awarded to Odebrecht, a massive dredging effort on the Magdalena River and a large highway project; calls for Odebrecht to sell its operations and leave the country altogether; the attorney general investigating the possibility that Odebrecht gave funds to Santos’ 2014 election opponent Óscar Iván Zuluaga; and allegations that Odebrecht has been making payments to Colombia’s largest guerrilla group, perhaps dating back more than two decades, to operate in territory controlled by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

Politicians in Brazil, Peru, and the Dominican Republic, among other locations, have faced backlash over Odebrecht repercussions in their countries, and at least 11 nations have signed an agreement to ramp up their investigation into the company’s widespread bribery. Major projects awarded to the firm, including multi-billion-dollar plans in Peru and the Dominican Republic, are also now in limbo.

In December, following a long-term and sweeping investigation that began with officials digging into massive corruption at Brazil’s state-controlled oil company Petrobras, Odebrecht agreed to a settlement of some $3.5 billion USD with the U.S. Department of Justice. Facing charges of handing out some $800 million in bribes to win contracts throughout a dozen countries since 2001, the company agreed to pay the penalty to various governmental agencies in the United States, Brazil, and Switzerland.

In Brazil, the scandal has recently accelerated yet again as a prosecutor revealed that still-sealed testimony from Odebrecht executives will lead to hundreds of new investigations that will further expand the so-called “Car Wash” case in the country. According to Reuters, the revelations from these statements “expanded the probe far beyond expectations and would ensnare top congressmen, senior members of the executive branch, and other powerful figures.”

The shocking announcement came amid a sweeping international scandal in which Bula was detained last month for allegedly taking $4.6 million USD worth of bribes for his role in ensuring that Odebrecht won a lucrative contract for work on the country’s Ruta Ocaña-Gamarra highway. Some of those illicit funds were funneled to Panamanian and Chinese companies, said Martínez today, and it appears that the Santos campaign may have also been on the receiving end.

Roberto Prieto, manager of the 2014 Santos campaign, is expected to be the next in line to answer to the attorney general’s office and the National Election Council, which will conduct a further investigation. In a statement, Prieto denied the claims, saying that “never, but never, have I even shared a coffee” with Bula.

The Santos administration was even more forceful in denouncing the allegation, categorizing it as another attempt by the political opposition to implicate the president in a scandal. “History repeats itself,” said Camilo Enciso Vanegas, secretary of transparency for the Santos administration, claiming an ongoing strategy of the opposition to “defend itself by attacking with lies.”

Enciso detailed two other incidents he believes represent similar cases, adding that the campaign received no donations, was fully funded by legal means, and that Prieto should be trusted over those alleging that the campaign took $1 million USD of illicit funds.

“According to the attorney general, there is no evidence that the money has actually been paid to the manager of the Santos presidential campaign,” said Enciso. “It is the word of a delinquent … against the word of the campaign manager.”

The attorney general did not reveal the extent of the evidence. Martínez did say, however, that his office initiated a formal investigation into the 2014 election financing at the request of the rival Democratic Center political party. The party’s specific concern was regarding recent claims in the Brazilian media that a local advisor to Óscar Iván Zuluaga, who Santos of the Party of the U beat in the 2014 race, had received funds from Odebrecht.

What this could mean for Santos remains unclear. But particularly given the hostile, partisan climate in Colombia after a liberal Congress passed an unpopular peace accord and tax reform late last year, the fallout could be significant. Just last month, Santos said that fighting the “cancer” of corruption in Colombia would be his administration’s number-one priority for 2017, and now he finds his name attached to a potential scandal.

After the announcement, local television cameras and reporters caught up with Santos’ chief political rival — right-wing Democratic Center party head, current senator, and former President Álvaro Uribe — to hear his view on the news. “It is a serious moment,” said Uribe. He added only that he didn’t want to offer a public assessment until he had time to properly review the situation.

Santos, who served in Uribe’s cabinet as the minister of defense before falling out with his former boss, first won the presidency in 2010. He won re-election in 2014 in a two-candidate runoff with the Uribe-endorsed Zuluaga, sealing his return to the presidential palace Casa de Nariño with a 51% to 45% margin in the vote.