Gustavo Petro defended the pension reform and denied that his government had bought support to approve it. He said that the House of Representatives backed it widely and that the then President of the Senate, Iván Name, delayed the debate for eight months so that it would fail due to lack of time. He also accused Magistrate Ibáñez of keeping it frozen for two years in the Constitutional Court, although he pointed out that the reform had already passed that stage. According to Petro, millions of elderly people, many of them from the right, could receive a pension thanks to the law. Regarding the allegations related to the UNGRD, Petro asked the Pacto Histórico bench to commission a forensic audit of the entire existence of the entity, since 2010, and to publish the names of those whom he claimed had embezzled it. He stated that only one person from the Pacto Histórico appeared on the extensive list, whom he said he had removed from the administration and whom, according to him, the party expelled. He also argued that justice should investigate whether Name had received public money through his romantic or political environment. Petro claimed that, during the first month of his government, resources were recovered that he attributed to Olmedo's group and that then the UNGRD was sidelined in the assistance to people trapped after an earthquake in the west of the country. Citing a journalistic investigation by Nueva Prensa, he stated that a private coordination center had been set up in the house of Gregory Schaller, whom he identified as Abelardo's compadre. He linked Andrés Depew, Negre — whom he described as a partner of Fernando Cerimedo — and people who, according to him, had ties to Donald Trump and businessman Dan Newlin to that place. Petro stated that Newlin had illegally lent his plane and resources during Abelardo's campaign. In the same publication, Petro mentioned businessman Yadid Jalaff, whom he said was accused of stealing Colombian-Venezuelan Monómeros, and Jorge Alberto Campillo Vélez, whom he described as one of Pablo Escobar's first pilots. He also pointed out pilot Luis Almeira Quiroz and linked him to a flight of paramilitaries from Urabá to San José del Guaviare, which, according to Petro, allowed the Mapiripán massacre, in which 50 farmers were murdered. He asked how much money had been raised to address the earthquake and if that explained why, according to him, the full operation of the UNGRD had been prevented and international aid and volunteers had been rejected. https://t.co/eiJJnl3Lxu #ReformaPensional #Justicia #Corrupción (translated)
