In record time, the Instruction Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice has ordered the collection of a series of evidences within the investigation underway against the former congresswoman of the Historic Pact Gloria Arizabaleta, after she tried to suspend President Gustavo Petro for alleged political participation. First, a raid was ordered on her office, then on her luxurious residence in La Calera.
And the most recent information is the revelation of a series of chats between the congresswoman -formerly president of the House of Representatives’ Commission of Accusations- and Alejandro Carranza, attorney of President Petro, which would confirm the hypothesis that Arizabaleta was demanding favors from the Government in exchange for delaying, archiving, or promoting processes against the President and even detractors.
Asset tracing?
In those messages, her brother Carlos Arizabaleta even comes up, who ended up ‘inheriting’ the seat of the 58-year-old congresswoman from Cali, who aspired to be elected magistrate of the Supreme Court, which is now prosecuting her.
And although Arizabaleta claims that, before she was suspended by order of the Attorney General’s Office, she collected evidence of alleged payments to Juan Fernando Petro, the President’s brother, from bosses like alias Pipe Tuluá – information that EL TIEMPO’s Investigative Unit had already revealed -, now it is sought to establish whether she received any favor to manipulate processes and why the alleged extortion she was subjecting the Government to was only known after the attempt to suspend Petro.
Resumes in hand
Indeed, sources from Casa de Nariño told EL TIEMPO that Arizabaleta summoned them to meetings from 2025 where she arrived with resumes in hand to recommend people close to her in key entities such as Fiduprevisora.
And now it is known that in the meetings she had with Carranza she claimed to be in debt due to the campaign that brought her brother Carlos to the Chamber.
EL TIEMPO established that sources close to the case will ask for her assets to be checked to determine whether anyone in the Government gave the congresswoman any favors or not.
According to documents in possession of this newspaper, Arizabaleta owns lot 6 of the Colinas de Arroyoalto subdivision in Dagua, Valle del Cauca. According to Arizabaleta’s own asset declaration, the price of that property is 643 million pesos.
The company in Cali
Additionally, lot 30 of the Sikasue condominium, located in the El Líbano hamlet, in La Calera – the property that was raided last July – and whose value is around 1.8 billion pesos. The apartment 501 of a building in Chapinero is also being checked.
The former congresswoman is a partner in the company Inversiones Ariro S.A.S, registered in Cali in 2012. It is a firm dedicated to real estate activities and cargo transportation. Arizabaleta holds 60 percent participation, along with a close associate and her brother.
Sources close to the former representative assured that these are assets acquired even before she arrived at Congress.
In Arizabaleta’s transactions that investigators are also tracing, there are credit card balances, loans, advances, fees, representation expenses, and other accounts.
(Check out all the articles from EL TIEMPO’s Investigative Unit here)
Meanwhile, former prosecutor, Néstor Humberto Martínez, announced legal actions this weekend against President Petro’s lawyer, who offered Arizabaleta to make the copy referral to bring him to justice.
INVESTIGATIVE UNIT
u.investigativa@eltiempo.com
@UinvestigativaET
Follow us now on Facebook
Read more Exclusive: armed groups added more than 13,000 members in Gustavo Petro’s government
