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Next Tuesday there will be a new face to face between the two highest positions of the National Police who, at the request of a disciplinary process in the Attorney General’s Office, are on different shores: one as accused of 4 disciplinary offenses and the other as a witness in her against.
Already last week, in the first statement of the Police inspector, General William René Salamanca, against his superior, the director of the institution, General Óscar Atehortúa, some sparks came out and the first denounced that he feared for his life and that of his family and said that an attempt was allegedly being made to erase important information from the case, which led to an inspection of the police headquarters in Bogotá.
(In context: My life and my family’s are in danger: Police Inspector)
The accusations were so serious that they led Defense Minister Carlos Holmes Trujillo to speak out on Friday. “In what has to do with General Salamanca, of course he has all the security. In what has to do with General Atehortúa, he is a great director of the Police and is creating a very important operational environment, ”said the head of the Defense portfolio.
In what has to do with General Salamanca, of course he has all the security
However, the deep division that is evidenced in this unprecedented confrontation between two generals raises, for analysts, an in-depth examination of the damage that the difference between two of the highest positions in the Police could generate in the institution. , that today they are only in a trial at the request of the Attorney General’s Office and that, on the contrary, they should be working together to advance the internal disciplinary investigations against the members of the institution.
(It could be of your interest to read: Hard testimony of General Salamanca in the trial of the Police Director)
The Government has been supporting General Atehortúa, who took office in December 2018; but nevertheless, it is not known if this support will continue with the arrival of the last month of the year, because in December traditionally changes are made in the Police. And it is also not clear, in case the Government decided to make movements in the command line, how General Salamanca would be, who, due to his time of service, could aspire to rise in the police ranks.
The process
On March 10, the Attorney General’s Office called General Atehortúa to a disciplinary trial on four charges, three of which were considered extremely serious offenses. The case is related to alleged irregularities in the Cenop fiscal housing project, in the municipality of San Luis, Tolima, which would have led to the high official incurring in “apparent faults in the process that gave disciplinary actions for these events when he held the General Inspection, and alleged excess of functions and influence peddling in his current position ”.
Specifically, lthe Attorney General’s Office questions that General Atehortúa, as director of the Revolving Fund, He had incurred in irregularities in the execution of the contract for the construction of the houses, which later as an inspector he would not have declared himself prevented from hearing the disciplinary file due to the alleged irregularities. In addition, that as director of the Police, he had supposedly asked a captain to obtain information on the subject and to finally try to influence General Salamanca so that he did not follow the process.
(For context, you might be interested in reading: Firm judgment of the director of the Police for tax houses in Tolima)
The Attorney General’s Office decided to carry out the disciplinary trial as a verbal process and after the statement of charges presented a list of 12 tests that have been practiced. In fact, it only remains for General Salamanca and another uniformed man to finish and 15 defense witnesses will be given way.
General Salamanca, a key witness against Atehortúa, in his statement at the Attorney General’s Office pointed out that his superior disappointed him
Sources close to the case indicated that both the decision that it was a verbal process, the list of evidence from the Attorney General’s Office was not well received considering that it affected the rights to due process and defense of Atehortúa.
General Salamanca, a key witness against Atehortúa, in his statement at the Attorney General’s Office pointed out that his superior “disappointed him” and that after a heated discussion he was sent on vacation of more than 400 days, when he was allegedly investigating acts of corruption within the institution. The officer had already testified about that episode and had indicated that his superior insisted that he remove a group of officials from the inspection.
On the specific issue of the investigation against Atehortúa, he said that he did not know the contracts under suspicion, that he did not review them and did not know how it ended administratively. Likewise, he stated in a statement in January, which was presented during the trial, that Atehortúa was the contractor of the work, although after the defense of the officer put the contract in mind, pointed out that this was not the case.
He added to the question of the lawyer Marco Antonio Velilla, representative of the investigated, that he had no “preventions” against General Atehortúa, but that he did want those responsible for the irregularities to be prosecuted.
The procedure was interrupted to carry out an inspection in the Police before the complaint of General Salamanca of destruction of evidence of the process.
(In other news: Jail man who killed his wife after argument over daughter’s name)
Official sources indicated that no irregularities were found, but that it did draw attention that in the process 105 entries were found to the process made since the inspection, when the process would have to be closed after it passed to the Attorney General’s Office. In the case, the then head of the Inspection Special Investigations Group, Captain José Fernando Llanos, was also heard, who denied that Atehortúa had ordered him to manipulate the process.
JUSTICE
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