Former Hocol president denounces Andrés Idárraga, former Secretary of Transparency, and Ricardo Roa for threats following an anonymous letter

A couple of weeks ago, a complaint was filed at the Attorney General’s Office signed by Luis Enrique Rojas Cuéllar, former president of Hocol – the powerful subsidiary of Ecopetrol -, and now the star witness of the Attorney General’s Office in the case against Ricardo Roa for the crime of influence peddling.

The Investigative Unit of EL TIEMPO exclusively established that in the letter, Rojas describes a series of threats and illegal coercion against him and points to Andrés Idárraga Franco, former Secretary of Transparency of Gustavo Petro’s Presidency and former Minister of Justice of the same administration, and Ricardo Roa, former head of the state company, as responsible.

In the document, to which EL TIEMPO had exclusive access, Rojas assures that while he was visiting the Guando field of Ecopetrol, located in Melgar (Tolima), on December 6, 2024, he received a message from Idárraga summoning him to an urgent meeting with Roa present. And he attached the WhatsApp message.

“While I was participating in said event, at 10:50 a.m., I received a message via WhatsApp from Mr. Andrés Idárraga, who at that time served as Secretary of Transparency of the National Government, a position that, due to its nature, gave him significant management and influence capacity with high-ranking officials of the National Government, in which he stated: “I have asked Ricardo Roa for a meeting where the three of us will be present’. Immediately after, he sent a second message indicating that this meeting was ‘urgent’. Approximately two months after these events, Mr. Andrés Idárraga was appointed as acting Minister of Justice,” reads Rojas’s complaint.

The former president of Hocol also stated that hours later, while at the Flandes airport, he received a call from Roa, who connected him with Idárraga. According to Rojas’s version, Idárraga confronted him about an anonymous message that had been sent to one of his close associates (then an official of the Attorney General’s Office), with supposed information about his private life.

At the same time, leaks had begun against Rojas to remove him from the position of head of Hocol.

And he dropped a depth charge.

“Mr. Andrés Idárraga told me that, according to what he had been informed, the anonymous message claimed that he had used the State’s intelligence agencies and that these had indicated that the message had been sent by a person close to Mr. Juan Guillermo Mancera, former colonel of the National Police and a person very close to Mr. Ricardo Roa. Immediately after, Mr. Andrés Idárraga expressed to me that he was convinced that I had provided that information to Mr. Mancera and that, for that reason, he also considered me responsible for sending the mentioned message,” Rojas stated in his complaint.

In that context, according to Rojas’s version, the Secretary of Transparency threatened him.

“He said he was going to go all out’ against Mr. Juan Guillermo Mancera and me. He also made death threats, expressly telling me that he was going to kill me and that, no matter how many bodyguards I was assigned, no one could save me,” Rojas told the Attorney General’s Office.

He adds: “After the call from Mr. Andrés Idárraga, in which he made death threats, I related those threats to the event that occurred in the early hours of the same day, when the vehicle of my security detail was intercepted by two apparently armed individuals. Due to the circumstances of time, manner, and place in which both events occurred, I consider that this episode could correspond to a possible attack against me.”

Additionally, Rojas said in the complaint that, days later, he held a meeting with Ricardo Roa, who allegedly told him that he believed the anonymous message had been sent by former police officer Juan Guillermo Mancera and that Rojas had no involvement in its sending.

“By that time, Mr. Ricardo Roa had already begun to exert pressure on me and to threaten me with the purpose of awarding the regasification plant contract to the company Gaxi, linked to Mr. Juan Guillermo Mancera”, Rojas stated about that meeting.

For that alleged favoritism, Roa is being prosecuted for influence peddling. This investigation started from the revelation by EL TIEMPO’s Investigative Unit about the purchase of his luxurious apartment 901, in northern Bogotá, in which Mancera was an intermediary.

And there is another case already under investigation: the alleged pressure for Ecopetrol to lease offices in Cartagena and Bogotá, which supposedly belong to Idárraga.

Rojas stated that on at least two occasions, Idárraga told him he wanted to show him offices in Cartagena and Bogotá, which were his property, so that Hocol would lease them. And he provided the addresses.

He added that weeks later, Idárraga summoned him to see other offices he owned near Parque de la 93 in Bogotá. Rojas assured that in response to Idárraga’s alleged request, he told him that Hocol already had its own offices and did not need to acquire new spaces.

EL TIEMPO contacted the former Secretary of Transparency, Andrés Idárraga, to ask him about Rojas’s allegations and he began by assuring that he has not been notified of the complaint against him.

“I don’t know what Mr. Rojas is referring to. I think he is fishing in troubled waters and playing the martyr to land on his feet in the current Government. We will take the legal actions that are appropriate in due time”, Idárraga said.

And when asked about the alleged use of state intelligence to track the anonymous message, he said: “I did not have access to intelligence. Only to human sources and open sources.”

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He also reiterated that, as he told EL TIEMPO’s Investigative Unit last weekend, he had nothing to do with Rojas’s departure from Hocol nor with the alleged office leasing requests to Ecopetrol.

Eight days ago, EL TIEMPO’s Investigative Unit revealed an audio in which the then head of the Special Assets Society (SAE), Amelia Pérez, states that Idárraga pressured her to change custodians of goods from the capo alias Fortuna. Regarding this, Idárraga said it was a case of threats to the then president and that he followed the institutional and legal route.

Regarding the issue of pressure and the anonymous message, Juan David León, representative of Ricardo Roa, stated that he is unaware of Rojas’s complaint, but that “Dr. Rojas’s statements, as always, lack foundation: “And they obey malicious assertions that seek to distract from the intention of his true conduct, which is improper conduct, as will be demonstrated during the trial.”

The criminal lawyer added: “Dr. Rojas, far from being the citizen he claims to be very scrupulous in the exercise of his function, had very questionable practices even in his role within Hocol. These are statements pulled out of thin air, which do not constitute relevant aspects, without evidentiary basis, that seek to overload the prosecutors and sabotage the administration of justice.”

And, through former prosecutor Mario Iguarán (his representative), former police officer Mancera stated that, although he knows Rojas and Ricardo Roa, he has never personally dealt with Idárraga and totally denies the narrated events.

INVESTIGATIVE UNIT

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