Colombian prosecutors charge 2 ex-Cabinet members of bribing lawmakers for their votes

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BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Prosecutors in Colombia on Monday charged two former members of President Gustavo Petro’s government with corruption for their alleged role in a congressional vote buying scheme.

Colombian authorities have launched a spate of corruption proceedings. The former heads of Colombia’s senate and house of representatives have also been arrested in connection to the vote buying scheme, after they were accused of receiving bribes from Petro's administration.

According to the prosecutors, former Finance Minister Ricardo Bonilla and former Interior Minister Luis Fernando Velasco conspired with officials in two agencies to steer public funds towards companies linked to members of congress and their allies.

In exchange for contracts worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, the members of congress voted in favor of legislation backed by Petro’s government, such as a reform of the nation’s pension system, prosecutors said.

The two former ministers were charged with criminal association, bribery and undue conflict of interests in contracting, and face up to 27 years in prison if convicted.

Bonilla and Velasco have denied wrongdoing.

Petro has described the proceedings against his former ministers as part of a plan to destabilize his government.

“I have the certainty that I have not committed any crime” Bonilla said during the hearing in Bogota, the country's capital. The 75-year-old economist is a long-time Petro adviser and was finance minister for 18 months, until he resigned last year amid allegations he had been one of the key players in the vote buying scheme.

The prosecutors say that most of the funds that were steered towards members of congress and their allies belonged to a national agency in charge of disaster prevention, whose former director is also facing criminal charges.