Governor of Colombia's largest province arrested on corruption charges
by Adriaan Alsema March 4, 2021
Colombia’s prosecution placed the governor of the country’s largest province, Antioquia, under house arrest on corruption charges on Wednesday.
Governor Anibal Gaviria, a member of the notorious Gaviria Clan, was detained in his office in Medellin over a suspicious budget increase for an upgrade of the so-called “Peace Backbone” road.
. . .
The governor allegedly adapted the contract again four days before leaving office in late 2007 to include the construction of a $4.4 million (COP 16 billion) bridge connecting the town of El Bagre to the unpaved village of Buenos Aires.
Gaviria additionally approved to pay the contractor more than $1.4 million to buy equipment while having equipment was a requisite to bid for the seemingly senseless bridge.
. . .
The Solarte Group found itself implicated in the Odebrecht Bribery scandal in 2016, but left a “splendid” bridge, the Gaviria family’s newspaper, El Mundo, reported last year when the governor was under house arrest for the first time.
. . .
The governor’s family has become one of Colombia’s most infamous “clans” after evidence indicating Gaviria was elected in 2003 with the alleged help of paramilitary warlords, took advantage of extreme violence to expand its land properties for cheap.
Gaviria has been mentioned as an alleged accomplice in the fake demobilization of extradited Medellin crime lord “Don Berna” and is being investigated by the war crimes tribunal for constructing apartment buildings on top of mass graves of victims of Berna’s paramilitary group.
More:
https://colombiareports.com/governor-of-colombias-largest-province-arrested-on-corruption-charges/
Oh, great. Went to look for a photo of the bridge at El Bagre, found this one, at this link:
Translation:
MAN'S HEAD FOUND IN THE MIDDLE OF A BRIDGE IN EL BAGRE
https://www.lapiragua.co/judicial/hallan-cabeza-de-hombre-en-mitad-de-un-puente-en-el-bagre/attachment/hallan-cabeza-de-hombre-en-mitad-de-un-puente-en-el-bagre/
Check, please. Don't think I want to look any longer for a bridge in El Bagre!
Looked up "El Bagre" in google translation, it means "The Catfish." Hmmmm.
~ ~ ~
Paramilitary (death squad) leader, Don Berna also appears in this article:
Colombia’s war crimes tribunal pulling corpses out of Medellin’s closet
by Stephen Gill July 19, 2019
Colombia’s war crimes tribunal has given Medellin authorities until Friday to surrender information about the location of mass graves the city hall was trying to keep secret.
The Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) ordered the Medellin Mayor’s office to surrendered the university study with alleged details about 174 people who where disappeared by paramilitary forces from the western Comuna 13 at a hearing on Wednesday.
Victims asked the court to also impose a work ban on two sand dumps just outside the city limits where as many as 300 people could be buried based on multiple testimonies by neighbors, victims and demobilized paramilitaries.
A city built on mass graves?
Testimonies given before the court made it painfully evident how the city’s subsequent administrations categorically ignored victims, particularly those of “Operation Orion,” a 2002 military operation carried out with extradited crime lord “Don Berna.”
The operation that took place when Governor Luis Perez was mayor sought to expel leftist militias from the Comuna 13 only to leave it under control of Pablo Escobar‘s successor.
According to special prosecutor Nancy Posada, when one of Berna’s lieutenants showed her the place where he had buried multiple victims, both were surprised to find that former Mayor and current governor candidate Anibal Gaviria had begun constructing apartment buildings on top of the mass grave.
More:
https://colombiareports.com/colombias-war-crimes-tribunal-pulling-corpses-out-of-medellins-closet/
Gov. Aníbal Gaviria
Employer of people like Don Berna
Diego Murillo Bejarano (Don Berna)
