Aida Merlano and Álex Char: The corruption scandal with love affairs that shakes politics in Colombia

A corruption scandal sprinkled with marital infidelity and blackmail shakes Colombia for the revelations of the former congresswoman Aida Merlanoimprisoned in Venezuela, which compromise politicians and businessmen, including Álex Char, a candidate for the Presidency, just five weeks before the first date at the polls.

The case, worthy of a soap opera, dates back to March 11, 2018 when Whitingthen a candidate for the Senate, was arrested in Barranquilla for electoral crimes, after which she was sentenced to 15 years in prison by the Supreme Court of Justice for buying votes for her election.

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But nevertheless, Whitingwho does not shy away from controversy, initially attributed the arrest to his political rise, since for being of humble origin, he bothered the upper class of Barranquilla, in particular the Char and Gerlein families, two of whose members were loversas it turned out later.

“It’s that my relationship with Julio Gerlein began when I was 16 years old”, He said Whiting in an interview published on Sunday by the magazine Cambio and added that, from the hand of that businessman, he entered politics, becoming a representative to the Chamber for the Conservative Party, and after the separation from Gerlein, who is twice his age (he is 80 years old and she is 41), started a relationship with Alex Charpolitical chief of Barranquilla.

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Char56, was mayor of Barranquilla twice and has managed to elect his two successors, a domain that he has extended to the rest of the department of Atlántico and to the entire Caribbean Coast, where he is the baron who moves votes for the Colombian right, for the who aspires to be a presidential candidate this year.

According to Merlano, his relationship with Gerlein had ended about six years ago “when Alejandro appeared in my path” and becomes his lover, a relationship that was a mixture of love and politics, and that’s when the problems began.

“Alejandro and Julio are both people who have been separated from their wives for years. They even live on different floors. But in society things are handled like this”he said to Change.

Aída Merlano during her appearance before the Venezuelan justice system. (AFP). (MARCELO GARCIA/)

FILM LEAK

After his arrest and conviction, Merlano starred in a cinematographic escape on October 1, 2019, taking advantage of the fact that El Buen Pastor prison had taken her to a dental appointment in a private office in Bogotáfrom where she escaped by going out the window and hanging down three floors by a rope, until she reached the street where a motorcycle was waiting for her and took her out of the scene.

She was heard from again on January 27, 2020 when was arrested in Maracaibo (Venezuela)a country he entered with false documentation, and twelve days later, when appearing before a court in Caracas, declared herself politically persecuted in Colombia and assured that he had to flee to that country because his life was in danger due to everything he knows about the purchase of votes by the Char and the Gerlein.

In an interview he then gave in Caracas to the journalist Vicky Dávila, from the magazine Semana, Merlano mentioned Álex Char, his brother Senator Arturo Char, and their father, businessman Fuad Char, as allegedly responsible for electoral corruption.and pointed to Julio Gerlein and his son as the architects of his escape plan.

The case was sleeping in court until last week Merlano gave a statement before the Supreme Court of Justice of Colombiathe same one that condemned her, in which she denounces that Álex Char gave him 500 million pesos (about 127,000 dollars today) for his 2018 Senate campaignas published by Semana, which had access to the recordings.

“It is no secret to anyone that votes are bought in the Atlantic and throughout the Caribbean region. But here the important issue is that they are bought with national money, with those contracts that are delivered by hand, with rigged bids between the contractors who are part of that concert to commit crimes”he said to Change.

He went even further and claimed that the Char wanted to assassinate her so that she would not reveal the electoral corruption and released couple photos with Alex Charalong with WhatsApp messages from December 2015 in which the politician expresses his love for her.

COMMITTED CAMPAIGN

Char acknowledged this weekend in an interview with Bocas magazine that the love relationship did existsomething that he described as “mistakes” already overcome with the family, but denied having given Merlano money to finance his campaign for the Senate.

The politician assured that he will not abandon his presidential careerand in fact this Sunday he was in the city of Montería campaigning with the other pre-candidates of the Team for Colombia coalition, which on March 13, the day of the legislative elections, will choose its candidate for the House of Nariño, but his rivals do not want to let the accusations go unnoticed.

The candidates of the Hope Center Coalition have already asked for “prompt justice to identify protagonists and facts in the framework of corruption and patronage denounced”, with direct references to Char’s aspiration, while Merlano’s defense announced criminal complaints against the politician and his family, one of the most powerful in the country.

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Source: Elcomercio