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Only the covid-19 pandemic managed to reduce some caravans of Venezuelans that were crossing the border with Colombia with a specific purpose: process your civil registration, request Colombian citizenship and return to your country.
Children of Colombians carried out this procedure on a regular basis. And while some looked for opportunities on this side of the border, the vast majority immediately returned.
(We invite you to read: This is how the powerful transnational mafia that haunts the Registrar’s Office operates).
But the numbers began to reveal an atypical increase in the flow of applications. So much so that EL TIEMPO established that there are restless Colombian authorities, facing the presidential elections of 2022.
(You may be interested: Maduro’s spy paid $ 2.5 million for a Colombian ID).
The figures that worry are these: in 2014, when the humanitarian stampede from that country was registered -Due to pressure from the Nicolás Maduro regime, shortages and persecution of the opposition-, Venezuelans who applied for Colombian citizenship were 22,147.
Alejandro Olivares, a member of the elite Faes body, was detained in Colombia and admitted that he paid 2.5 million for a Colombian ID.
National security
However, requests have increased exponentially, setting off alarms in the high government, the National Registry, Migration and the Police, as it is a matter of national security.
In addition, a little over a month ago, information (from a very good source) arrived at Casa de Nariño about an alleged plan of the Nicolás Maduro regime to try to influence the presidential elections.
(Also: The 29 men of Nicolás Maduro who stalk Colombia).
Apart from destabilization strategies (which have already been felt), the supposed plan would be accompanied by a massive identification operation, to influence the results. And to that was added the increase in original Colombian ID cards, fraudulently issued to all kinds of people, for which other countries have already taken their toll.
A week ago, active officials of the Registrar’s Office were captured.
Colombian Immigration Judicial Police and audits of the Registrar’s Office (there are 50 throughout the country) have established that among the clientele of the network of corrupt officials who issue these documents to foreigners, there is from a vallenato singer to a professor at a university in the coast.
(In context: Three members of the fearsome Maduro Police are arrested in Colombia).
But EL TIEMPO has revealed that documents have also been issued to members of the Bolivarian National Guard, to Faes files (Maduro’s secret police) and to bosses of criminal gangs in that country, as alias Willy Meleán, killed by the police 8 days ago.
This is the information with which alias Willy Meleán processed the Colombian ID.
UAE Alert
Now, reporters from this newspaper established that individuals from other origins (such as Cubans, Dominicans, Arabs, Turks and Nigerians) have been caught committing crimes, with Colombian identity. This led the United Arab Emirates to regret taking away their visas from Colombians and for other countries to consider starting to apply for it (see attached note).
(You may be interested: Venezuelan drug lord and his lover had original Colombian IDs). An elite team (from the Civil Registry Office of the Registrar’s Office) has already managed to annul 1,609 fraudulent registrations in two years. And there are 3,000 in the sights.
Graph on Venezuelans registered in Colombia.
Racking
In fact, the revelation of this newspaper that the capo ‘Meleán’ and his lover had obtained original identification cards with other names, led the national registrar, Alexánder Vega, to close the entity’s headquarters in Galapa, Atlántico, to carry out an audit.
(We invite you to read: The Colombian false identity factory)
As for the information on the massive transfer of Venezuelans looking for civil registration, identity card and even Colombian passport, this is kept under reserve.
But, through legal mechanisms, EL TIEMPO accessed the freshest data, which has even been aired in meetings in Presidency, with the registrar Alexánder Vega; the prosecutor, Francisco Barbosa; the director of Migration Colombia, Juan Francisco Espinosa; the Director of the Police, General Óscar Atehortúa, and intelligence files.
The Judicial Police of Migration Colombia investigates several networks of sale of Colombian identities.
Mauricio Moreno. TIME
It is clear that, in 2018 and 2019, there was an exponential increase in the request for civil records, the first step to go through the other documents.
(In Context: The True Identity of the Eln’s Greatest Assassin).
In addition to corruption, in Colombia a 1970 legislation is applied, which allows anyone to register with 2 witnesses. The norm was foreseen for births in the field or with midwives. But now there is a traffic of false witnesses and in some cases, even some registrars put their fingerprints and sell the documents for two million pesos.
The numbers
The graph that accompanies this note shows how, in 2014, 22,147 Venezuelans asked to be recognized as Colombian, supposedly with Colombian parents. In 2015, the number jumped to 41,450, and the following year, to 66,966.
But the big leap occurs in 2017, 2018 and 2019: there were first 93,975 applications; then 159,413 and 142,208. So far in 2020, including the pandemic, the figure is 42,586, for a total of 568,825. From this universe of new Colombians-Venezuelans, 379,334 appear in the electoral census, ready to vote.
The National Registrar, Alexánder Vega, has powers to protect the Electoral Census.
Courtesy Registrar
Shock plan?
It is clear that, despite the alarms, not everyone would be part of Maduro’s supposed plan. But the information says that 200,000 more are on the way.
“The figure may seem insignificant if you consider that a president is elected with 10 million votes. But it could be the ticket for a second round. Recently one of those quotas was defined with less than 300,000 votes ”, assured an investigator.
EL TIEMPO learned that, to clear up any doubts, the Duque government, together with the Registrar Vega, is evaluating ordering an audit to establish how the civil registries were granted, which later became certificates of potential voters.
That verification would be carried out by an elite team, which would include the Prosecutor’s Office.
The possibility is even being considered that, making use of the power that allows him to protect the electoral census, the Registrar Vega opts to suspend indefinitely the registration of civil registries for Venezuelans, using witnesses. The only exception would be minors, who are covered by international standards.
Another measure is that Colombian-Venezuelans who want to vote re-register their identity card within a certain period and in a process that even includes facial biometrics. It is possible that in a few days measures will be known to begin to shield the electoral roll.
Men from the Bolivarian Intelligence Service (Sebín) have obtained Migratory Transit Cards in Colombia.
Cubans, 89 Arabs and a singer paid for records
The mafia in Colombia around the illegal issuance of identities is monumental and has authorities in the United States, France, the United Arab Emirates, Spain and Italy, among other countries, on alert.
The portfolio they offer includes removing documents from gangsters – such as José Berley Guarín Loaiza, alias El Ilustre -, so that they appear as deceased and their persecution ceases. And they also issued cédulas to the extinct Ecuadorian guerrilla alias Guacho; the bloodthirsty leader of the Eln, alias Pablito, and alias El Mocho, the criminal who exploded the bomb at the General Santander School of Cadets (2019).
The Arabs of Pivijay
But not only Colombian criminals have fraudulently obtained these documents.
In one of the audits ordered by the Registry, 89 Arabs with Colombian identity were found, obtained from fraudulent civil registries. They all swore to be from Pivijay, Magdalena, and some posed for the photo with their turbans.
But the Registrar verified that the witnesses who testified that they had seen them being born were lying and appeared in several civil registries saying the same thing. In addition, it was established that in order to reach Colombia, the Arabs were first certified in Venezuela.
This image was captured the day that Alejandro Olivares, from the Faes command of the Maduro regime, was detained in Colombia with false documents.
Once all the instances were exhausted and respecting due process, the Registrar’s Office annulled the documents for Base Safady Amiri, Kamal Zgheib, Nadia Issa Nashman, Yamal Gardou, Haisam Haime Atat, Al Hariri Ahmad, Tuameh Bacahar and Mohammed Bazar, among others. And now they will do the same with a singer from Maracaibo and with a doctor who teaches classes on the coast.
(See here all the articles of the Investigative Unit of EL TIEMPO).
“The United States is on alert because among the Arabs there may be someone linked to terrorist groups and may jump to that country as a Colombian. His embassy has already had to cancel visas, “said an investigator.
It is believed that for a registration kit, identity card, passport and visa they can request between 50 and 100 million pesos.
There are already some registrars investigated, as well as employees of notaries. And both Migration and the Police and the Prosecutor’s Office prepare new blows.
INVESTIGATIVE UNIT
[email protected]@UinvestigativaET
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