EL TIEMPO’s Investigative Unit exclusively established that in an extraordinary board meeting of the state-owned Ecopetrol, its president former minister Luis Felipe Henao will ask for the irrevocable resignation of Juan Carlos Hurtado, who has been acting as the head of the company, after Ricardo Roa requested leave amid criminal charges against him.
The immediate removal request comes 24 hours after EL TIEMPO’s Investigative Unit exclusively revealed a 43-minute audio from a breakfast where witnesses place Hurtado in a meeting with the Catalan Manel Grau and a powerful contractor named Víctor. Besides discussing contracts, vice president positions, and the business of Julián Caicedo, Ricardo Roa’s partner, the audio reveals that Hurtado’s resume was moved by the Catalan and a man known by the alias ‘el Bachiller’.
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Positions and contracts
The recorded conversation talks about quotas in high positions at Ecopetrol linked to Manel Grau, who is attributed to having a direct line with then-president Gustavo Petro.
Additionally, there is mention of interest in drilling contracts through the figure of ‘works for taxes’, a detail that fits with one of the points already being investigated by the internal audit – ordered by the board president, Luis Felipe Henao, and executed by Ricardo Rodríguez Yee, an independent board member – which links to Fiduprevisora.
In the recording, a voice with a Spanish accent attributed to Grau is heard saying: “We managed by force to put a vice president named M. S. in the chair (…) He is a person who has been with the company for many years, who has a level of knowledge (…) But since he arrived, he was not part of Osorio’s group and they have tried to remove him. Remove in what sense? Empty his competencies, well, works for taxes, out.”
