On August 5th, two days before the government of Gustavo Petro expired, the Presidency and the Ministry of Justice – headed by Cielo Rusinque – issued 9 decrees to appoint several officials close to petrismo in key notaries across the country.
One of the cases that has caused the most noise is the appointment of Efvanni Paola Palmariny, a former Colpensiones official, close to the former director of that entity, Jaime Dussán, who landed in notary 78 of Bogotá.
The 9 appointments
Last July, EL TIEMPO’s Investigative Unit had already denounced a chain of appointments for these positions of people close to former Health Minister Guillermo Alfonso Jaramillo and former first lady Verónica Alcocer.
After calls from various sectors, including the government of Abelardo De La Espriella, the distribution was slowing down. However, that Wednesday all vacant offices were filled.
According to one of the decrees signed by Rusinque and former president Petro, notary 74 of Bogotá was assigned to Íngrid Paola Ortiz, wife of Camilo Andrés Pardo. It is the same official, close to Guillermo Alfonso Jaramillo, who only lasted 24 hours as secretary of the National Infrastructure Agency (ANI) of the De La Espriella government.
His resignation became known after this newspaper revealed his ties to the previous government and the notary for his wife.
That same day a second decree was issued to appoint former senator of the Green Alliance party close to petrismo Inti Raúl Asprilla. The former congressman arrived at notary two of Soacha, Cundinamarca.
The San Victorino notary
The same document states that the vacancy of that notary was freed due to the mandatory retirement age of its previous holder, Ricardo Correa.
Another appointment is that of Jacobo Torres Amaya, in the newly created notary 82 of Bogotá, right in the San Victorino area.
EL TIEMPO’s Investigative Unit revealed last July 3 that in the Superintendence of Notaries and Registry they assure that María Fernanda Carrascal, congresswoman of the Historic Pact, requested the creation of that notary.
At the time, Carrascal assured that she is not behind that notary and that since 2020, several merchants told her there was a need to create that office in the area.
Bucaramanga and Palmira
Another appointment was that of lawyer Tatiana Arévalo Uribe in notary 9 of Bucaramanga, Santander.
She is the spouse of Nicolás Corso Salamanca, a purebred petrista who was appointed in 2023 as president of the Investment Center (CISA), an entity attached to the Ministry of Finance.
Corso Salamanca was also director of Metrovivienda during Gustavo Petro’s mayoralty.
In Palmira (Valle) there was also an appointment in notaries. In that municipality, Oriana Melo Gaviria was appointed as notary 2 of Palmira, Valle, according to decree 1020 of August 5, 2026.
Melo Gaviria had been appointed rector of the University of the Pacific according to resolution of June 17, 2026, by former Minister of Education Daniel Rojas.
In Boyacá, it was Governor Carlos Amaya who appointed Hilton Alexander Gutiérrez Alvarado as Sole Notary of the Nobsa Circle.
The other cases
Gutiérrez Alvarado was also appointed by Rusinque as notary of that office.
According to documents in EL TIEMPO’s possession, the current notary has a contract with the Ministry of Mines and Energy that he signed in January of this year to support the implementation of the Climate Change agenda in mitigation and adaptation for the hydrocarbons sector.
That contract for 103 million pesos was signed last January 21 and according to the schedule runs until December 31, 2026. In other offices, the Ibaguereño Jorge Alberto Rey Zafra was appointed in notary 7 of Cartagena, Bolívar and Irma Susana Caballero Moreno, in notary 3 of Rionegro, Antioquia.
(Consult all the articles of EL TIEMPO’s Investigative Unit here)
In an interview with EL TIEMPO, Paola Palmariny assured that her appointment had nothing to do with Dussán: “It has nothing to do with that. I submitted my resume, they studied the requirements and I passed. More than 30 notaries were appointed this way, it is completely normal.”
And she assured that what has been said about her appointment are slanders and libels, so together with her lawyers she is considering legal actions.
For its part, the Superintendence of Notaries and Registry said that in all cases the appointments were service needs. Also, that there is no list of eligibles, due to the troubles in the notarial contest that even had corruption noises.
INVESTIGATIVE UNIT
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