“There is shocking evidence and unusual vileness”: Gloria Estrada’s lawyer | THE UNIVERSAL

Councilor Gloria Estrada and justice met again. Four months after his capture, on January 14, when he was traveling through Barrio Manga in a van with Martín Barreto and Avelino Villamizar. A kilo of cocaine, weapons and money were found in the vehicle, which led to the arrests and sparked a national political controversy.

The audience

The hearing to revoke the security measure in the 11th Municipal Criminal Court with Function of Control Guarantees began with the petition in favor of the release of Gloria Estrada, Avelino Villamizar and Martín Barreto, who are facing security measures for possession and traffic of narcotics.

The request was filed by his defense attorneys to Judge Guido Guevara Herrera, in which they support the thesis that it was all a plot, resulting from a political war for contractual power in towns in Cartagena. His version of events maintains that there were alleged irregularities on the part of the authorities at the time of the capture.

Enrique del Río and Juancho Royero defended Gloria Estrada; David Sandoval Meléndez was the lawyer for Martín Barreto, who replaced Alfonso Montes Camelo, former defender of the councilwoman’s partner, in this proceeding. Avelino Villamizar was represented by the lawyer Angélica Berrío Navarro.

The hearing was attended by prosecutor Angel Mattos, from the Anti-narcotics unit, and Diana María Giraldo, as a delegate from the Attorney General’s Office.

A “suspicious” attitude

To support the request for revocation and Estrada’s freedom, attorney Enrique del Río stated: “We ask that Gloria Estrada’s house arrest be revoked and her fundamental right to freedom prevail, appealing to due process and the presumption of innocence, more when a sentence has not yet been carried out in his case. Similarly, I invoke the powers that the defense has for the purpose of collecting, from the imputation and even before it, material evidence, physical evidence and legally obtained information, which can be used to structure the defense strategy and unfold the inference of the previous judge in the case.

And he stressed: “In a special way, we ask for attention, criteria and rigor for the evidence that we are going to present below. In addition, that the delegates of the control bodies unlearn all the information that has been given, much of it conjecture, speculation and media interpretations. The facts we will present are shocking. Never in my career have I witnessed such vile acts of corruption.”

The lawyer recounted the events of January 14, the day of the capture of the councilor, since the defendants left his house, to support his version. He emphasized the alleged irregularities at the checkpoint where the illegal items were found. Later, he recounted all the phases after the arrest, the house arrests and the intramural of Martín Barreto.

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To substantiate this thesis, the lawyer presented a series of evidence that ranged from testimonies from Estrada’s relatives and bodyguards, from a firefighter at the gas station, complaints to the police, an official letter from Distri-security indicating that the surveillance camera at the place of the facts were damaged and investigative reports made by private professionals.

The testimonies of Braulio Vanegas and Avelino Villamizar were key in Del Río’s speech, since they had a meeting arranged with Estrada, moments before the capture. In addition, the jurist stressed that in the video shots none of those who entered the truck with any package or package, such as the one found by the dismissed police officer, Alexander Salas, are seen.

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Graphic simulation of how the crew members were located in Martín Barreto’s van, who later disembarked when Estrada, Villamizar and Braulio Vanegas arrived.

Carlos Barraza, Manuel Eljaiek and César Sotomayor indicated that De la Puente, sitting in the back of the pilot and where the drug was found, several times did not allow people to get on the back of the vehicle and that he saw how he moved some “documents” .

tensions with the police

Del Río continued his account of the events after the truck left the Council en route to Manga. The lawyer recounted how there were confrontations between those allegedly involved and the police officers at the checkpoint, since the crew members were surprised by the package found, for which Gloria Estrada reproached the police officers for having been the ones who had placed it, which caused them to become obfuscated.

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