Ex-Miss Colombia could be jailed over corruption scandal

Source: Colombia Reports

Ex-Miss Colombia could be jailed over corruption scandal
Monday, 21 February 2011 14:34
Jim Glade

Former Miss Colombia Valerie Dominguez is one of 22 people who could be sent to jail for allegedly receiving government agricultural subsidies intended for poor farmers in the Agro Ingreso Seguro (AIS) scandal, reports newspaper El Espectador.

Dominguez, who owns a jewelry business, reportedly received $163,000 (COP306 million) tax-free for an "irrigation and drainage" project.

The 22 accused allegedly received a collective $1.7 million (COP200 million) from the government-funded subsidy program without having the proper legal qualifications to do so, Prosecutor General Viviane Morales announced Monday.

The Agro Ingreso Seguro program took place under then-Agriculture Minister Andres Felipe Arias under the Uribe administration, and was intended to decrease rural inequality by granting subsidies to peasant farmers. Former administration officials are accused of corrupting the process by giving these government funds to wealthy land owners, beauty queens and political allies.

Read more: http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/14508-ex-miss-colombia-could-go-to-prison-over-corruption-scandal.html

Lots of jewelers go after semiprecious stones. It will be interesting to see whether the drainage project had to do with mining of quartz or other minerals. South America has some extensive deposits.

The money that was given to the beauty queens, wealthy farmers, ranchers and others was funneled back into the presidential campaign of Arias, the favorite candidate of outgoing president alvarito uribe in the election last year.

Arias failed miserably in this run for the presidency.

'...including Ex-Vice Minister of Agriculture Juan Camilo Salazar Rueda are also being investigated.' Good to see that the crimes of a former administration are being takes seriously SOMEwhere in the Americas.

Support for motion to censor Agriculture Minister grows
Wednesday, 14 October 2009 09:18 Neda Vanovac

~snip~
"The policy of the Ministry of Agriculture is focused on creating tax exemptions and subsidies for large landowners under the guise of creating more jobs. What is being achieved through these measures is again peasants and laborers, taking away their essence which is land tenure," Benedetti said.

~snip~
At the time of the approval of the Agro Ingreso Seguro project, Arrieta said: "I want to separate myself from the euphoria that has greeted this bill.... I don't know if it's an act of law or an act of witchcraft."

When the motion was passed in 2007, Arrieta was the only Uribista who did not support the government's initiative.

The Agro Ingreso Seguro subsidies came under fire after weekly Cambio reported that the money, originally meant to create equality in the agricultural sector, ended up in pockets of beauty queens, the wealthy, and families of politicians.

http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/6376-uribistas-switching-sides-in-agro-scandal.html

likely if she's convicted the judge will wag his finger (or other parts) and tell her not to do it again.

I don't know the details of this case but the family is also implicated in it, it's possible, though I am not going to dance around the issue, but it's possible she is part of a larger deal that used her namesake to make the deals, she could be ignorant of what went on.

responded to wrong spot

Beauty queens and policitians' families receive major subsidies
Thursday, 24 September 2009 08:14
Adriaan Alsema

Multi-million subsidies to "promote productivity and competition and reduce inequality" in Colombia's agriculture have ended up in the pockets of beauty queens, politicians' family members and wealthy families, weekly Cambio reported Thursday. According to the magazine, 100 of the 376 projects that applied for subsidy were granted a part of the tax free 72.5 billion peso (US$37.9 million) federal budget, but despite the goal that the subsidy seems to imply, a large number of the recipients were not poor farmers, but wealthy, powerful families, beauty queens and the families of politicians.

Former Miss Colombia and actress Valerie Dominguez, who has a jewelry business, received 306 million pesos for an "irrigation and drainage" project. Former National Queen of the Sea, Ana Maria Davila received 448 million pesos for another "irrigation and drainage" project. Dominguez is the girlfriend and Ana Maria is the sister of Juan Manuel Davila Fernandez de Soto, member of the Davila family, one of the wealthiest and most powerful in the Magdalena department. In total, the family received 2.2 billion pesos, tax free, all for "irrigation and drainage" projects in their home region.

Another recipient is former congressman Luis Eduardo Vives Lacouture, currently on house-arrest after being convicted for enjoying ties to paramilitary death squads and member of a family that own the majority of development projects in the north Colombian banana growing region and has powerful positions within the government; Maria Claudia Lacouture is head of the government's 'Colombia es Pasion' program that is in charge of promoting tourism to Colombia.

"They supported President Uribe in his political campaigns and with these subsidies are paid for their support," an anonymous local politician told Cambio. The Vives Lacourte family received 5 billion pesos, also for "irrigation and drainage" projects.

More:
http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/6082-beauty-queens-and-policitians-families-receive-major-subsidies.html

~~~~~
Google translation from Spanish:

Capture of 22 people ordered by providing subsidies in Colombia
2011-02-21 15:46:00

Bogotá, 21 Feb (Notimex) .- The Office of Colombia ordered the capture of a dozen former officials and members of wealthy families in the country surveyed by giving and receiving state subsidies in the previous government, said an official source. The attorney general, Viviane Morales, said on Monday told reporters that he charged fees to those involved in receiving resources originally assigned to programs seeking to revive the Colombian countryside.

Among those concerned with judicial include model and former beauty queen Valerie Domínguez and seven former officials of the Ministry of Agriculture, linked to the scandal of "Agro Security Income." Morales explained that these people be accused of undue interest in the conclusion of contracts, breach of legal requirements, embezzlement and misappropriation and malfeasance by commission or omission.

Although the project aimed to support farmers, the credits ended in the hands of wealthy families who were contributors to the campaign of then President Alvaro Uribe Velez, local media reported.

Media revealed that even the huge subsidies were also handed to relatives of people surveyed in Colombia for alleged links to drug trafficking or illegal groups.

More:
http://sdpnoticias.com/nota/4663-Ordenan_captura_de_22_personas_por_entrega_de_subsidios_en_Colombia

Agricultural subsidies are a nasty thing. They are a source of government waste, inexplicable tax money handouts for a few, an affront to the free market principles that are essential for economic growth. The European Union and the Unites States have bloated and complex systems of farm subsidies, which, among other things, impede fair and free competition in world markets for products grown in the developing world. In Colombia, subsidies of all kinds are relatively small due to budgetary constraints, although the government in recent years devised a large program designed to give citizens’ hard earned pesos to agribusinesses. Agro Ingreso Seguro (AIS), as the program is called, has the aim to “promote the competitiveness and productivity of farming sector” according to the official website. Between 2007 and today, the Colombian state has spent around 1.26 trillion pesos (around US$630 million again, according to SIGOB.gov.co, another official website) in AIS subsidies.

That is a huge number. When you have such large, arbitrary transfers of taxpayers’ money to private individuals, the least one expects is some transparency and accountability. And there has been very little of that. Cambio, a leading news magazine, ran a story that says how some AIS subsidies ended in the pockets of a few rich agro-entrepreneurs in northern Colombia. According to the article, that has created a scandal of enormous proportions, four wealthy families in the department of Magdalena received around 25,000 million pesos (12.5 million dollars) in handouts. The news became scandal material, in part because one of the recipients of the money was Valerie Dominguez, a former Miss Colombia. The article claims that members of these four families divided their farms in smaller parts among themselves in order to qualify for more AIS funds.

Ever since the Cambio article was published, more information on AIS recipients has come to light. Caracol, a broadcasting network, has it that 18 “rich families” in the department of Santander received around 9 billion pesos (4.5 million dollars). According to newspaper El Espectador, Ismael Pantoja, a drug lord better known as ‘El Negro’ who is now imprisoned in New Jersey, received 200 million pesos (US$100,000) in AIS subsidies.

Now, all eyes are on Andres Felipe Arias, the former Minister of Agriculture and a presidential hopeful from the Conservative Party. The subsidy program was designed under his tenure, and he is coming under attack from many quarters for it. Rudolf Hommes, a former Minister of the Economy, wrote recently in El Tiempo that Arias’ AIS amounted to an application “of the idea, popular among the noblesse prior to the French Revolution, that in order to help the poor one has to give money to the rich.” With presidential primaries for the Conservative Party coming soon, Arias wants to get rid of the scandal before it affects his image any further. Whether he will be able to do it remains an open question –and Arias does not have much in his favor. Nobody wants the president to be a brazen benefactor for the wealthy on top of young and inexperienced.

More:
http://colombiareports.com/opinion/the-colombiamerican/6343-dear-government-please-stop-giving-free-money-to-the-rich.html