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Teléfono móvil sobre un escritorio con documentos judiciales y una agenda abierta bajo luz nocturna de oficina
Un teléfono y documentos sobre un escritorio, en alusión a los chats examinados en la investigación del caso UNGRD. · Imagen generada para EPM

Sandra Ortiz chats and the alleged route of the UNGRD money

The extraction of chats from the phone of Sandra Ortiz, former high counselor for the regions, would confirm according to the investigation her alleged…

--- The context --- The looting of the National Unit for Disaster Risk Management is described in the investigation as the largest corruption scandal of the government of former president Gustavo Petro. The agency responsible for emergencies was allegedly turned into a bargaining chip so that lawmakers would support the government in exchange for contracts or cash, according to the reconstruction known so far. --- The facts --- Prosecutors extracted chats from the phone of Ortiz with Ivan Name, former president of the Senate; with Olmedo Lopez, former director of the agency, and with Sneyder Pinilla, former deputy director. Those chats would confirm, according to the investigation, key meetings around the delivery of 3.000 million pesos to Name, which is why Ortiz has been called the messenger within the scandal. According to an analysis by the Dijin cited in the investigation, a lunch on 21 September 2023 with Carlos Ramon Gonzalez and Ivan Name allegedly took place and is considered by that analysis as the genesis of the plan. That day, Name proposed lunch at one and asked her to speak with Gonzalez to confirm, and Ortiz confirmed minutes later. The agenda sent to her secretary the previous day already included that midday lunch. After that lunch, Ortiz wrote that same day to Lopez to tell him that they urgently needed to talk. According to the investigation, the purpose attributed to the maneuver was not only to secure support for government proposals, but also for the election of Vladimir Fernandez as a magistrate of the Constitutional Court. Days later, on 25 September 2023, another meeting allegedly took place in a Tequendama suite with Lopez and with Name, which Ortiz confirmed by writing to the phones of Lopez. On 12 October 2023, Ortiz apparently visited the agency headquarters, met with Lopez and held a conversation with him in which Lopez indicated that everything was ready for the meeting they both described with an everyday expression. According to what is documented in the investigation, Lopez and Pinilla allegedly agreed that day to carry only part of the money, because the other part would be delivered the following day. At the end of that day, Ortiz allegedly met Name to hand him, apparently, the first 1.500 million pesos. That night, according to the chats, Name expressed his blessing and gratitude and proposed a new meeting the following morning. On 13 October 2023 the second delivery of 1.500 million pesos allegedly took place, coordinated during the day with Pinilla, while Ortiz told him she was waiting for that day meeting to be arranged. Later that second night, Ortiz wrote to Name to announce that she would arrive at nine, and Name replied briefly and affirmatively, according to the extraction. In that way the transaction described by the investigation allegedly was completed, with all the evidence held, according to the known material, in the mobile phone of the former counselor for the regions. --- The positions --- The public position of Ortiz, according to the account, has changed over time: she first pointed to several protagonists and later maintained that she had nothing to do with the corruption that turned the agency into a bargaining chip. That variation is part of the context with which any reader should assess the chats, because the investigation is still ongoing and the conduct described is presented in alleged terms. In addition, according to the published material, prosecutors have not presented that extraction at the hearings. --- What remains unknown --- Prosecutors still need to explain at a hearing the full scope of the extraction, its chain of custody and the evidentiary weight they assign to each conversation. It also remains to be established, with documents and cross-checked testimony, who ordered each meeting, who set the amounts and what happened afterward with the political support that, according to the investigation, was being sought in exchange for the money allegedly delivered. --- Unanswered questions --- When will prosecutors present the complete extraction from the phone of Ortiz at the hearings in this case? What explanation will Ortiz give about the lunch on 21 September 2023 and about the meeting on 25 September 2023 at the Tequendama? Who defined the delivery of 3.000 million pesos and under what authorization was that money moved, according to the investigation? What proven link exists between the alleged deliveries and support for government proposals and for the election of Vladimir Fernandez? --- EPM analysis --- What matters in this material is not an isolated message, but the complete sequence: a lunch presented as the genesis, an urgent contact that same day, a later meeting at a hotel, a day at agency headquarters and two alleged deliveries on consecutive days. That chronology, if prosecutors sustain it at a hearing, turns brief and apparently minor conversations into pieces of coordination sustained over several weeks. No piece yet amounts to a conviction and the defense may challenge the context and meaning of each chat at a hearing. 📌 EPM Take: In EPM's view, the extraction attributed to the mobile phone of Sandra Ortiz obliges prosecutors to move from a leaked narrative to evidence presented at a hearing, with a complete chronology, the full context of each conversation and a clear explanation of how the meetings on 21 and 25 September 2023 and the alleged deliveries on 12 and 13 October 2023 for 3.000 million pesos would have been coordinated. Without that step, the country is left between grave suspicion and practical impunity, and neither outcome strengthens public trust in justice or in democratic institutions across the country today.
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