The confession of Nany Pardo, former adviser to Petro, about payments in the presidential campaign in Colombia

Without appearing, the journalist María Antonia Pardo (Nany) was one of the protagonists of one of the so-called ‘Petrovideos’, leaked in the final stretch of the campaign for the Presidency of Colombiawhere the candidate Gustavo Petro he is shown meeting with his innermost ring of advisers.

In one of those meetings, whose leak is being investigated by the Prosecutor’s Office, there is talk of changes in the communications team of the candidate, because it was not giving results. But it is also pointed out that this team had been financed by businessman Christian Daes.

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“There is supposed to be a man who is Daes, who is paying for communications equipment. So, if it is a team of María Antonia and she pays the rest, which is what I understand to date, what we have to get is for Daes to do this with another person and another team.”, assured the Catalan politician Xavier Vendrell.

Verónica Alcocer, wife of presidential candidate Gustavo Petro, was at several of the leaked meetings. (Photo: Néstor Gómez. EL TIEMPO).

The latter, a former militant of the former terrorist group Terra Lliure, was arrested in 2020 for the so-called Voloh case, in which alleged influence peddling and diversion of funds in the sovereign process of Catalonia is investigated.

In the virtual meeting, in which they discussed the Daes payment, were Verónica Alcocer, Petro’s wife; Ecuadorian Vinicio Alvarado, former adviser to Rafael Correa; Eduardo Ávila, manager of the campaign; Senator Armando Benedetti and Gloria Flórez, senator of the Pact. The latter suggested “tiing the tongue” of the journalist, after firing her, because she knew confidential information.

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Daes denied any contribution to that campaign and in the official records delivered to the National Electoral Council these alleged aids do not appear either.

Gustavo Petro (left) and Christian Daes. (Photo: EL TIEMPO and courtesy).

The journalist’s version

This Friday night, the journalist Pardo decided to give her version of what happened from her social networks.

She began by assuring that she was invited to be part of the campaign by Verónica Alcocer, the candidate’s wife who is seen in several of the videos.

“The person who invited me to work for Gustavo Petro was his wife, Verónica Alcocer. I DID NOT ARRIVE TAX. I received the invitation by phone, a call that was made from Europe in April 2021. She told me that he liked what I wrote and my analyzes”, points out Pardo.

Let’s clarify:

Due to the ILLEGAL recording and leaking of private conversations, my name has been questioned and I have received all kinds of accusations, accusations and defamation.

He had decided to remain silent, but silence is already unsustainable at this point.

– Maria Antonia Pardo (@NanyPardo) June 17, 2022

And his version follows:I replied that I was going to think about it, because I was surprised considering that I am not a Petrista or leftist (although I had already announced my intention to vote for Petro since the first round). Then Mr. Eduardo Ávila called me, also from Europe, to convince me”.

After giving some additional information, the journalist begins to talk about her departure from the campaign, the payments she received and the team.

“The first, a publicist, the Mr. Vinicio Alvarado, designer of the graphic line of the Historical Pact (in 2018 he was the one who made the TV commercials for the 2nd round). The second, an expert in analyzing the electorate from a psychological point of view, Mr. Daniel Eskibel“, Explain.

Alvarado is a former adviser to then President Rafael Correa, who has a sentence in Ecuador.

María Antonia Pardo says that Daes financed her. (Photo: Twitter).

Although the Petro campaign registers revenues of more than 18,000 million pesos, the journalist says that she had to seek financing.

”I looked for financing to be able to work. Entrepreneur Chris Daes, who is not only my friend, but also someone I have had business ties with for 10 years, was the person I went to. I sold him the idea like this: “I want to build bridges between the center and the left”, explains Brown.

And he points out that he received money from Daes: “He explicitly told me that he wanted nothing to do with campaigns. I explained that we were not in the campaign, but in the previous part. And that was perfectly legal. In any case, he told me: I FINANCE YOU. And so he did. Financing that was given between June and December 2021″.

And this is his explanation of the origin of those payments: “In white silver I donated my work to Petro and subcontracted a team from an agency to be able to do the job well. My right hand in this work was Mr. Jorge Muñoz (who fell ill in September of last year and died in February of this year). We were eight people”.

The campaign has not yet referred to the content of the video where Daes payments are discussed or to the response of the journalist Pardo. But she did report the leaking of content from her meetings.

The Prosecutor’s Office investigates both the leaking of the videos and parts of their content, including a possible violation of financing regulations, including the Daes episode and a supposed aid that, according to Senator Roy Barreras, gave Supergiros in the first round.

The company, like Daes, also denied it.

Source: Elcomercio