Breaking news: As of 5pm today, Armando Benedetti was spotted on a commercial flight leaving Panamá for Istanbul Turkey.

Colombian newsmagazine Semana last month first broke the news of Sarabia having accused her nanny, Marelbys Meza earlier in the year of stealing the equivalent of $7,000 cash (others report the number as $4,000-accounts conflict) from Sarabia’s apartment. Morphing from the victim to the perpetrator, Sarabia is accused of then having Meza subjected to a polygraph test, and arranging wiretaps, something that as presidential chief of staff, she would have no authority to do under Colombian law.

Colombia’s Attorney General Francisco Barbosa, appointed by the previous president, and independent of President Gustavo Petro, has already opened a criminal investigation. Petro and Barbosa have a contentious, hostile relationship.

Now, the same nanny, Meza, used to work for Armando Benedetti, as did Sarabia as his secretary, but Sarabia and Benedetti drifted apart once Sarabia dedicated herself to being Petro’s right hand as his chief of staff. Benedetti says that Sarabia sought his help in covering up the emerging “chicharron” as the press began to get wind of the story, but Sarabia accused Benedetti of leaking the story in a tantrum over his negated demand for government positions.

It seems Meza wasn’t the only one being wiretapped.  Last weekend, Semana published damning, vulgar recordings of audio messages between Benedetti and Sarabia. These are where the scandal metastasizes from a staffer abusing power to something that directly implicates President Petro himself.

Benedetti is clearly heard threatening to expose evidence incriminating Petro’s campaign for criminal funding and ties—though Benedetti himself was the campaign manager. Benedetti references a $3.4 million USD equivalent contribution, which is not accounted for in campaign finance filings. If true, that would be a criminal offense with a mandatory prison sentence in Colombia.

“I wasn’t threatening you, but I am threatening you now you son of a bitch, you and the president, do you understand? If you want me to threaten you, I will come out and reveal everything that I know, which is enough to end your world and mine, we’ll all go down. We’ll all be done. We’ll go to jail,” Bendetti is heard saying in one of the messages to Sarabia.

Once he was busted by Semana, he at first claimed that the audios were manipulated, though hours later he sort of confessed, saying that he had acted out of “weakness and sadness,” was angry, and drunk.

He sido parte fundamental del actual proyecto político del presidente Petro. Sin embargo, no satisfecho con lo que me correspondió políticamente, en un acto de debilidad y tristeza me dejé llevar por la rabia y el trago.

— Armando Benedetti (@AABenedetti) June 5, 2023

Petro was now sucked into the scandal, derailing his struggle to push through controversial legislative reforms that would remake the health, pension and labor infrastructure of the country. Petro is already struggling with a 34% approval rating and a congressional coalition that was fracturing before this. Monday, Congress tabled debates on Petro’s reforms, essentially freezing legislative progress and dissipating whatever momentum he may have had.

The scandal is already sprouting branches and shoots, too many to contain in one article. For example, Colombia’s CTI, analogous to the FBI in the US or MI5 in the UK just this morning conducted a search of offices of Colombia’s tax authority: the DIAN. However, according to news daily El Tiempo, though the building was a DIAN facility, the offices raided actually were occupied by a security organ that reported directly to the presidency, and that they would have had possession of a mirror copy of the nanny’s telephone—illegal if obtained without a proper search warrant and law enforcement involvement. The Office of the Presidency simply cannot order wiretaps, polygraphs, or detain people.

In 2008 under the administration of Alvaro Uribe, his chief of now-disbanded secret police and domestic intelligence unit the “Department of Administrative Security” (DAS), Maria del Pilar Hurtado was jailed for 14 years—ironically for wiretapping and spying on, among others, now President Gustavo Petro! Now his own administration is in jeopardy for similar accusations.

The chameleon

A career politician, Benedetti is not a consistent ideologue, but has a history of aligning himself with whoever is on the way up in Colombian politics. He opposed center-right Mayor of Bogotá Enrique Peñalosa, but then became a close supporter of former President Alvaro Uribe after the star of Horacio Serpa fell and it became apparent that Serpa would never obtain the presidency.

Benedetti became President of the Senate during the presidency of Juan Manuel Santos, and the two forged a close working relationship, even as the bond between Santos and his political patron Uribe collapsed. During the deeply unpopular presidency of Ivan Duque, Benedetti distanced himself from Duque’s allies, and his criticism of the president facilitated his growing close to far left Senator, ex guerilla, and now President Gustavo Petro. When they say “politics makes strange bedfellows,” arrangements like these are exactly what they mean!

A quickly evolving story

Today, June 7^th, Petro called on his supporters to take to the streets and protest in support of him and his initiatives. As of 5pm most marches have been reported as peaceful, though the Medellín branch of the National University has been evacuated as a small explosive device was detonated. Several major thoroughfares have been blocked in different parts of Colombia. In Barranquilla, the Defensoría del Pueblo, which is a government body charged with defending human rights, has confirmed that it is protecting journalists who were intimidated by marchers in the city.

The scandal has already caught Washington’s attention as Congresswoman Maria Salazar grilled the US State Department’s Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Brian Nichols on the Biden administrations response, asking Nichols to facilitate Benedetti’s admission to the US to testify on the hinted campaign irregularities that Benedetti mentioned in the recordings. Of course, no one from the US has asked or summoned Benedetti, and he has not said anything at all about going to the US for anything. In fact, he was spotted on a commercial flight this very afternoon leaving Panamá headed to Istanbul Turkey. Salazar, a representative from Miami, has been a vocal critic of Gustavo Petro.

? La crisis política en Colombia llega al Congreso de Estados Unidos: esto se discutió ▶️ https://t.co/F8JDcDz3lQ pic.twitter.com/q76379IUhA

— EL TIEMPO (@ELTIEMPO) June 7, 2023

Benedetti has an appointment with Colombia’s National Electoral Commission next Tuesday to explain his accusation about the $3.4 million USD / $15 billion COP that he bragged illegally entered the Petro Campaign that he managed. This has echoes of the $3.75 million in illegal money that went into the campaign of former Colombian President Ernesto Samper (1994-1998), sponsored by the Cali Cartel cocaine traffickers. Samper was so tainted that the US revoked his visa and temporarily cut off economic aid to Colombia while he was president. Despite his reputation, less than a decade later, President Alvaro Uribe offered Samper the ambassadorship to France, which amidst the ensuing uproar, Samper did not accept.

One unanswered question: Who recorded the audio? Who released the audio? Why was Sanabria’s voice left out?

¿Qué Sigue? (What comes next?)

If it turns out that Sarabia ordered or “encouraged” the police or presidential security operatives to wiretap, polygraph, detain, or seize the telephone data of Marelbys Meza, she would be in serious violation of Colombian criminal law, even if it turns out that Meza was in fact guilty of theft.

If the Petro campaign, managed by Benedetti, did in fact receive massive illicit revenues, it will have grave consequences for Benedetti, as well as Petro.

It remains to be seen whether Benedetti returns to Colombia from Turkey in time for his appointment with investigators next Tuesday.

Jeffersson Arango Castellanos and his two Colombian co-conspirators, Kenneth Uribe and Pedro Silva, have been formally charged by the U.S Department of Justice with kidnapping an internationally protected person, conspiracy to kidnap an internationally protected person, assaulting an internationally protected person, and conspiracy to assault an internationally protected person.

Arango and Uribe were both arrested by authorities in December. (As of press time, it is unclear if Silva has been arrested by authorities.)

According to court documents, the three men reportedly drugged and kidnapped the soldiers, who were in a Bogotá bar during temporary duty in the nation on the eve of the pandemic shutdowns in March 2020. While watching a soccer match, the two reportedly lost consciousness and were found later without their wallets and phones. One of the soldiers was found in a street in Bogotá while the other arrived in his apartment.

A drug test showed that there were benzodiazepines in their systems.

The Colombian National Police and the U.S. FBI opened a joint investigation and found surveillance footage of three men escorting the two U.S. soldiers out of the bar, as well as footage that allegedly shows Arango using the debit and credit cards in different places.

Arango has admitted that he took the two soldiers to a hotel room and convinced one of them to give them the PIN number to one of their debit cards by pretending that his phone was a card reader and having the soldier type it out there. The men then reportedly left the soldiers on the street after committing the theft.

Arango appeared at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida on May 5 in his first court appearance. It is unclear if his co-conspirators have also been extradited as of press time.

1. Don’t wear expensive watches or gold necklaces. In big urban areas, Colombians don’t, and neither should you. You will not see Colombians walking around with expensive jewelry on the street because of the risk of theft. If they are going to attend a formal event, they will go in private vehicles. A pedestrian wearing these expensive items will not look wealthy, he will look clueless.
2. Don’t use your high-end smartphone on a busy street. If you must make or take a call, best to duck into a corner store or coffee shop, buy a soft drink and conduct your business there. If you wish to take a photo, that’s fine but just look around and be sure you aren’t the object of anyone’s attention.
3. Don’t carry lots of cash. The vast majority of retail establishments and commercial restaurants in Colombia accept bank cards like Visa and Mastercard. Leave your stash in your hotel safe, or a secure area of your apartment, and don’t walk around with more cash than you expect to spend that same day. ATMs, or automated cash machines are widespread in Colombian urban areas, and generally work fine with foreign cards enabled for international transactions.  When withdrawing cash or purchasing items with a bank card in Colombia, you may be presented with the option of accepting a conversion from pesos to dollars. Generally you want to decline this, as they are almost certainly offering you an unfavorable rate compared to your own bank or financial services provider. Of course, rural areas and small artisan vendors or “mom & pop” restaurants may not always accept charge cards. Large shopping malls often have options for licensed money exchangers. Be sure to count your money and store it in your wallet or purse before leaving their service counter.
4. Be careful partying with strangers. In the US and Europe, we hear about “date rape drugs.” Similar substances are used in Colombia to rob tourists—and Colombians of their belongings. Even when the police investigate, few tourists have the means in time or money to stick around for the prosecution to make its way through the courts, so with no witness, the criminals eventually go unpunished. Some criminals have a modus operandi targeting foreign visitors, using for example, attractive young women or friendly “bros” who know “where the party’s at” as bait. You may notice that when liquor is ordered at most clubs and bars in Colombia (but not in international hotels), the bottle is opened at your table in your presence. This is to show you that the drink is not adulterated, and the bar staff is not “slipping anything into your drink.” When drinking with people you do not know, do not leave your drinks unattended. Drinking a beer and headed to the restroom? Take your beer with you.

5. Be prudent about transportation. Taxis in Medellín are generally straightforward, and the price in pesos is whatever is shown on the taxi meter. The official white cars to and from the airport operate at a fixed rate, which you should confirm before leaving. In Bogotá, the taxis have a notoriously bad reputation, and even many Colombians avoid them, using either Über, or InDriver ride hailing apps. InDriver has the advantage of allowing the passenger to “make your own offer” of how much you wish to pay. It also takes a much smaller cut of the fare, so the drivers prefer it. In Cartagena, there are no taxi meters so be sure to agree on a price before entering the taxi. Most hotels also can arrange transportation with providers they trust, but the transportation is more expensive. You can rent a car in Colombia but understand that there is no legal limit for blood alcohol. Driving with any detectable alcohol in your system whatsoever is an arrestable crime.
6. Don’t abuse drugs! Not only is it illegal in Colombia, and Colombian prisons are “not pleasant,” illegal narcotics are often a means of delivery of the disabling hallucinogens like Rohypnol or the more common Scopolamine, made from a flowering tree found in Colombia distantly related to the Tomato. Crime victims are often reluctant to report the crime because their drug use will show up in the resultant medical attention. The situation is worse when the victims are not fluent in Spanish, or don’t have resources to pay for medical care. Along with not abusing drugs, public drunkenness is not only ugly, it puts you at risk for victimization by criminals.

Officials have been unable to properly repair the 480-mile pipeline following a large attack in May that caused an oil spill in Tibú in the department of Norte de Santander. The repairs have not been completed due to “continued harassment by firing helicopters” and “anti-personnel mines in some areas,” according to the Bogotá-based company. Ecopetrol said that assailants setting fire to equipment has also caused delays in the efforts to repair the damage.

Photo: An image distributed by Ecopetrol shows the environmental damage caused by an attack last week on the Caño Limón-Coveñas pipeline in the department of Arauca. (Credit: Ecopetrol)

The most recent pipeline attack occurred last Friday, July 21, in Saravena in the department of Arauca. In that incident, damage to Caño Limón-Coveñas, which is jointly owned by Ecopetrol and U.S. oil company Occidental, led to an oil spill that impacted some 2,500 square meters of land and vegetation.

In all, eight attacks have been reported since May 30 and oil theft has also been on the rise, according to Ecopetrol. Groups routinely damage the pipeline by opening it up to siphon off crude, and officials have discovered 17 of these illicit valves since May 30.

Previously, in the month of May alone, assailants stole roughly 100,000 barrels of oil. Their actions also led to the spillage of 11,064 barrels in the month, stated Ecopetrol.

In all of 2017, the company said that have been 38 known attacks against the oil infrastructure in Arauca, Boyacá, Cesar, and Norte de Santander. Additionally, at least 27 illicit valves have been detected this year on the Caño Limón-Covenas pipeline. Combined, the illegal actions against the pipeline have spilled oil that has impacted 13,300 square meters of land.

“Ecopetrol rejects these illegal actions that put the life and integrity of people at risk, violate international human rights, seriously affect the environment and the well-being of communities, as well as the normal development of oil activities.”

Ongoing disruptions to Caño Limón-Covenas in early 2017 left the pipeline out of service for more than one of the first three months of the year. That shutdown cost Colombia some 893,000 barrels of oil production, according to Ecopetrol.

From the start of January through the end of April, 357 homicides occurred in the capital, which was 39 fewer than the 396 reported during the same period in 2016, according to the mayor. “We have been able to reduce the main indicators of insecurity, but we have also increased confidence in the authorities,” said Peñalosa.

The mayor, during a ceremonial delivery of vehicles to the police force in the city, also said that vehicle theft was down 4.5% so far in 2017. Among all crimes and infractions, the capital recorded 12,486 arrests during these four months.

The homicide trend in Bogotá continues to build on the progress seen last year, when Colombia’s national homicide rate — 24.4 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants in 2016 — reached a level not seen since 1974, according to the government. “This is a country that definitely is advancing in its conversion to a much more civilized and peaceful society,” said Defense Minister Luis Carlos Villegas in January.

Those 2016 national numbers improved in part due to a historically low murder rate in the capital that fell 6% compared to 2015. Overall, Bogotá had a homicide rate of 15.8 per 100,000 inhabitants last year. Armed robberies of stores also fell 30% in 2016, while the common crime of mobile phone theft dropped by 20%, according to the mayor.

In 2016, the western Colombian city of Cali also reported its lowest homicide rate in nearly three decades. Medellín, however, saw murders jump by 7.9% in 2016 compared to the 2015 level as an increase in violence raged between armed groups in Colombia’s second city.

Photo credit: Jared Wade

Law enforcement has been able to capture 162 people this year, and recover 8,727 meters of cable (8,035 in the Orinoco region,372 in Magdalena Medio (Middle Magdalena) 372 and 320 in the south of Colombia). The oil fields in the Llanos Orientales and Middle Magdalena have been hit hardest. So far in 2015, there have been 193 cases of copper wire theft in the Orinoco region, while the Magdalena Medio recorded 175 incidents and 25 in the south of the country. In the case of the Llano Oriente (eastern plains), crime is concentrated in rural areas of Acacías and Castilla la Nueva (Meta). In the Middle Magdalena,  Yondó, Antioquia, and Barrancabermeja, Santander are the affected parts. In the south of the country, the rural area of ​​Neiva, Huila is facing problems.

• Year to date there are 393 cases of theft, compared to 194 in the same period of 2014

• Acacías oilfields, Castilla la Nueva (Meta), Yondó (Antioquia), and Barrancabermeja (Santander) are the most affected

In total, 224 oil wells have suffered damages due to cable theft. The main consequence of this illegal activity is the temporary interruption electrical flow stopping oil wells from pumping, with corresponding effects on the production of the company. The volume of crude production interruption so far this year has reached 24,885 barrels. In the Orinoco’s Castilla y Chichimene losses have reached 14,994 barrels, in the Middle Magdalena, the figure amounts to 6,513 barrels and 3,378 barrels in the south.

To address this problem, Colombia’s security forces have increased their operations in critical areas with more patrols, “lockdown operations” on the access roads, checkpoint operations, and junkyard inspections. Meanwhile, Ecopetrol is working on implementing additional protective measures on oil wells and raising public awareness about the damage and risk to life that this causes.

Photo courtesy of Ecopetrol