Former President Juan Manuel Santos described as “absolutely false” the testimony of the new ambassador in Washington, Juan Carlos Pinzón Bueno, in the sense that the latter informed him that he had a drug trafficker uncle in the United States sentenced to life imprisonment.
“He never told me anything about his criminal uncle,” Santos testified before a query made this Monday by La Nueva Prensa regarding statements delivered by Pinzón Bueno to journalists, who will shortly occupy the Colombian embassy in the United States for the second time, unless Joe Biden’s government denied him diplomatic approval to receive him in that country.
Pinzón told journalists that when he was appointed Vice Minister of Defense, he informed Santos about the moral restriction he faced due to the fact that his uncle Jorge Eliécer Bueno Sierra was a drug trafficker and was serving a life sentence in the USP jail in Atlanta (state of Georgia).
“A brother of my mother was captured for drug trafficking and later convicted in the United States. That case was only known to a person to whom I informed the day he offered me to be Vice Minister of Defense. I told him that I could not be a Senior government official, but on the contrary, he told me that due to my ethical and moral conditions and my achievements, it seemed to him that I should go ahead and do my career accordingly. And so, for many years we produced great results against terrorism, against drug trafficking. This person was Juan Manuel Santos”, Pinzón Bueno told Caracol radio station. (*Unofficial translation)
Thus, Pinzón Bueno maintained that, upon being notified by him, former President Santos replied that this moral burden was unimportant and asked him to take office.
“Absolutely false”, declared Santos, and added: “I found out about it last week, like the rest of Colombians” after the exclusive disclosure of this media outlet, which can be consulted here.
Pinzón Bueno later became Minister of Defense and then Ambassador to the United States for the first time, between July 2015 and May 2017. Pinzón Bueno also hid from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Colombia, and from the White House, the drag on his back that involves having a carnal uncle sentenced to life in prison in the country where he was to serve as ambassador. It has only been known now – thanks to the La Nueva Prensa investigation – when he has just been reappointed by Iván Duque in the most important diplomatic position that a Colombian can hold. Colombian Foreign Ministry sources neither confirmed nor denied that Juan Carlos Pinzón Bueno, being ambassador, would have visited his uncle in the Atlanta jail. The Federal Bureau of Prisions of the United States, in charge of Pinzón Bueno’s drug trafficker uncle, neither confirmed nor denied possible visits, since this type of information is usually kept under reserve.
On the other hand, Mónica Pinzón Bueno, Pinzón’s sister, was Colombian consul in Boston between March 2011 and May 2015. She also did not inform the Colombian Foreign Ministry nor the United States government about her drug trafficker uncle imprisoned in Atlanta, who by then has been sentenced to life imprisonment already for having introduced half a ton of cocaine through the Miami seaport. He was then consul in Vancouver, Canada, for two years.
Now, Mónica Pinzón Bueno is head of communications for Continental Gold, a Canadian company that, thanks to its links with paramilitaries, has taken over a gold mine in the municipality of Buriticá, which has the largest vein in Latin America. In fact, a former director of that company and several former officials of the Mayor’s Office of Buriticá (Antioquia) are imprisoned for it.
Mónica Pinzón Bueno (Juan Carlos Pinzón’s sister) was cónsul in Boston (USA)
Additionally, in 2004, Juan Carlos Pinzón Bueno managed to have his first cousin Jorge Mario Bueno Ruge (son of his first uncle convicted in the United States) given an official position in the Administrative Department of Social Prosperity (DPS in spanish), considered the largest nest of bureaucracy in Colombia, where political and other kind of favors are paid with public resources. Currently, Bueno Ruge has a contract with the DPS for more than 97 million pesos.Bueno Ruge is the political share of his cousin Juan Carlos Pinzón Bueno and Germán Vargas Lleras.
Jorge Mario Bueno, Juan Carlos Pinzón’s cousin, is the son of the drug trafficker in mention. He has been an employee of the DPS for more than six years, and was put there as the share of his cousin Pinzón Bueno and Germán Vargas Lleras.
Jorge Mario Bueno Ruge, Juan Carlos Pinzón’s cousin, is currently working for the Administrative Department of Social Prosperity (DPS).
