María Fernanda Rojas, the Minister of Transport of the Petro government, joined yesterday different voices in the country demanding a thorough investigation not only into the shady contracts that have been cooked up at the last minute in the Civil Aeronautics Authority (Aerocivil), but also the appointments linked to a single family clan.
For some weeks now, when Rojas requested a special audit from the Comptroller’s Office for that entity – due to complaints about opaque contracting processes – the version that a recently graduated young woman was pulling strings of power in Aerocivil began to gain strength: the 20-year-old law student Gabriela Muñoz Olaya.
Angie Rodríguez’s fan
The version escalated when Angie Rodríguez, formerly the right hand of President Gustavo Petro, made several allegations that she even turned into a complaint against the president before the Investigations and Accusations Commission of the Chamber: “It wasn’t just Juliana Guerrero. There is, for example, a lady named Gabriela. She at one time managed the Civil Aeronautics Authority at will. Her name is Gabriela Muñoz.”
And now, Minister Rojas herself came out to denounce that Aerocivil is providing her with incomplete information about the service contracts she ordered to be delivered. And that some contracting processes were taken down when she demanded that the information be published: “It is a lack of respect. I will take all actions and my hand will not tremble nor will I silence my voice with whatever I have to denounce or warn.”
The women’s network
Juliana Guerrero is called to trial on August 20 for the forgery of her university diplomas. And over the weekend, President Petro came out to defend her after complaints from Semana magazine about an alleged bribery network to award projects in the Government.
Regarding Gabriela Muñoz, versions indicate that she and her brother Santiago David (who appears on social media as a pilot) were a kind of behind-the-scenes power. In fact, the latter is placed in an alleged incident on July 15, on the fifth floor of the entity, after a meeting with Luis Alfonso Martínez Chimenty, head of Aerocivil.
The Investigative Unit of EL TIEMPO established exclusively that the mother of the Muñoz family is Liliana Olaya Cabrales, coordinator until a few days ago of counterintelligence in the powerful National Intelligence Directorate (DNI), which depends on the Presidency.
“She resigned two days after the incident at Aerocivil,” said a government source and assured that it is false that she is still in the DNI as some sources claim.
This newspaper contacted Olaya, who, although she refused to talk about her link with the state’s counterintelligence, admitted that she recommended her two children and four nephews to be hired by the entity.
The Muñoz clan
“I recommended them, they are newly graduated and others are studying. Two are engineers and two are high school graduates. I recommended them to General Pinto, former director of Aerocivil. They don’t earn millions as they say and I told them to fulfill their duties”, Liliana Olaya told EL TIEMPO.
And she said that she would not talk about her work because she feared for her safety.
One of Gabriela Muñoz’s cousins who appears on the payroll is Daniel Felipe Arias Olaya, who has a current contract to provide assistance services to support operational, logistical, and institutional relations activities of the Citizen Service Office (OAC).
Also listed is Samuel Muñoz Rayo, who has a contract to provide support services in activities related to document management. The list also includes Juan Manuel Galindo Muñoz, who provides professional services in technical matters to support planning processes, quality management, and documentation of Aerocivil, for 70 million pesos.
And finally, Silvana Muñoz Jaramillo, a cousin of the clan. It is being verified if another young woman close to the Muñoz Olaya family has a contract to provide administrative support services in groups of the subdirectorate of collection. She has three more contracts, two with the Ministry of the Interior and another with the Fiscal and Parafiscal Management Unit.
Other sources from the outgoing government assured EL TIEMPO that Liliana Olaya, a psychologist by profession, arrived at the DNI through Jorge Lemus, formerly a trusted man of Petro, whom she met at the Bogotá Fire Department when the president was mayor of the capital.
Verification at Ecopetrol
“Liliana’s job was to collect and analyze counterintelligence information,” an official from the entity told EL TIEMPO and assured that it is not true that she continued going to the office.
What they did point out is that among the information that has reached control bodies, it is being requested to establish if another key official of Aerocivil had contact with high-level personnel from Ecopetrol: “The official lost the competition in the National Civil Service Commission. But she has been placed in several positions.”
EL TIEMPO contacted Olaya again to ask about this issue, but she said she would not talk anymore and hung up. However, sources from the state company will request that the entry log be reviewed to verify the information.
Minister Rojas has already announced that she will report to the control bodies the alerts she has received about what is happening in Aerocivil.
The director has remained silent. But Gabriela Muñoz has come out to reject the allegations against her and relatives have come out to assure that it is a respectable family and that, even, a relative would have been linked to the M-19.
(Check here all the articles from EL TIEMPO’s Investigative Unit)
The incoming government, of Abelardo De La Espriella, had already requested that million-dollar contracts in Aerocivil be stopped and now the audit results are awaited.
INVESTIGATIVE UNIT
u.investigativa@eltiempo.com
@UinvestigativaET
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