Controversy over the presence of Venezuelans as allies of Mayor Daniel Quintero in Medellín

Daniel Quintero Calle, mayor of Medellín who is accused of new acts of corruption – credit @quinterocalle/X

A new complaint affects the already questioned and investigated administration of Daniel Quintero Calle as mayor of Medellín, which has been the protagonist of strong scuffles with councilors and journalists, as was recorded through the media.

You may be interested: Daniel Quintero is decorated in Congress on the same day that a complaint about hiring in Medellín is known

The controversy aroused by the aggression of the president of the capital of Antioquia with the lobbyist Sebastián López, whom he treated as a “thief” and threw a serious insult at him in the Council’s own facilities, by describing him as “hp”, also added the They clashed with Blu Radio journalist Ana Cristina Restrepo, whom he described as a “political operator” after revealing a report from the Todos X Medellín oversight office.

Now you can follow us on our WhatsApp Channel and on Google News.

You may be interested in: Daniel Quintero refers to the media coverage of the controversy with the Medellín councilor on his social networks

But, as if there were few controversies that the mayor has had to face, a new scandal came to light on Sunday, September 24, affecting the president: he recorded the lowest popularity ratings in the history of mayors elected by vote. popular since 1988.

According to the newspaper El Colombiano, in the Quintero administration a kind of “board of directors” would have come into force that, as was the case in Bogotá, was in charge of directing the contracting processes that were carried out in the city and that ended becoming a poster in the capital of the Republic.

You may be interested in: Journalist Ana Cristina Restrepo requests a rectification from Daniel Quintero for accusations in a radio interview

The newspaper revealed that two businessmen, both of Venezuelan origin, would be the key men to execute the mayor’s strategies in this sense: Rafael Carrero Valentier and Eduardo Rodríguez Hernández, the latter better known as Lalo, his remoquete.

According to the newspaper article, Carrero is part of one of the families closest to Hugo Chávez Frías, the late president of Venezuela, and who amassed his fortune during the period in which the president was in power: between 1999 and 2013, when he was confirmed. his death, the result of an aggressive cancer. What is known as a “bourgeois pen”.

El Colombiano mentioned that after Chávez’s arrival, several insurance policies issued by the Venezuelan government were transferred to Carrero’s company: Multinacional de Seguros.

For his part, his partner was a contractor from the neighboring country, and his firm managed to enter into contractual ties with the oil company PDVSA for the order of 2.5 billion bolivars, in the period between 2011 and 2017; But the following year (2018) he fled Venezuela due to threats against him and left for Medellín.

They would be joined by Juan Boird Pereda, who was an employee of Carrera, but who was known, according to El Colombiano, as the “political operator”, since he would have the function of collecting bribes resulting from million-dollar contracts. Among them is the one that the Public Companies of Medellín (EPM) delivered to Canacol for the supply of gas and construction of gas infrastructure, for 5 billion pesos.

Although the agreement included the handling of the hiring of the Ministry of Education, in the end this possibility did not materialize. Where they would have taken advantage is in the TX firm, apart from Afinia, an EPM subsidiary on the Atlantic coast, and Plaza Mayor.

“In 2020 – the year in which Daniel Quintero assumed the Mayor’s Office – Lalo, Biord and Andrés Piñero, also Venezuelan, registered seven companies in the Aburrá Valley that increased their assets without having employees, branches or assets,” the report read. journalistic.

According to the complaint, these contractors would be financing, at least in advertising on social networks, the campaign of the candidate for the governor of Antioquia Esteban Restrepo, which was managed from office 802 of building C13. There would be at least evidence of the circulation of 39 ads on Facebook, managed on March 8 and June 9.

When questioned about this matter, Rodríguez denied his participation in this campaign, although he confirmed that he is aware of the candidate and his participation in the October 29 contest.

Terra Construcciones Corp, owned by the aforementioned subject and legally represented by his compatriot Biord, is the one that occupies the office that appears registered in the platform’s invoices. Quintero’s relationship with these facilities lies in the fact that it was from there that he operated after the suspension of the Attorney General’s Office, due to participation in politics, in May 2022.

In this regard, Quintero has not commented on social networks about this delicate accusation against him. “There are media more outraged by one hp than by the 20 billion that those hp have taken down from us,” was the only comment he issued on Sunday, September 24, 2023.

The one who did speak out was the former president of the Republic, Álvaro Uribe Vélez, who replied to the El Colombiano article, but also added a comment that sparked controversy. “In Venezuela, resources and democracy were stolen. We must stop them so that they do not continue doing the same thing here,” he stated.

With this publication on the X network (Twitter), former President Álvaro Uribe spoke out about this complaint, which involves Mayor Daniel Quintero – credit @alvarouribevel/X