Rodolfo Hernández, who is now a candidate for the Governor of Santander, continues to face the process that is taking place against him for alleged corruption in the Vitalogic case.
This Thursday, July 27, 2023, the Tenth Criminal Court of the Bucaramanga Circuit resumed the oral trial against the former mayor of Bucaramanga, who has been marred by various acts of corruption in his political career.
After three months of suspension -in April 2023 the judge in the case, César Valencia, declared himself prevented-, the judicial process against the former mayor of Bucaramanga, accused of offering gifts, along with his son, was resumed so that the contractors of his administration, when he governed the capital of Santander, will deliver a contract of 335 million pesos to the company Vitalogic.
The objective of the oral trial scheduled for this Thursday, July 27, is to hear the arguments of the Attorney General’s Office in his accusation against the former mayor of Bucaramanga.
Specifically, the accusing entity would present the testimonies against the candidate for the Santander Governorship in the Vitalogic case.
For this occasion, in addition, a change of prosecutor is presented, since Jorge Villamizar, who was at the head of the prosecution body in this case, was promoted and transferred. For this reason, Germán Peñaloza took over as delegate of the Attorney General’s Office.
This case has gone through several instances, due to the change of positions that engineer Rodolfo Hernández has had. In April 2022, the Office of the Attorney General of the Nation formally accused the former local president for the crime of improperly holding contracts.
When Hernández lost the presidential elections against the current head of state, Gustavo Petro, the Supreme Court of Justice took over the reins of the investigation since the former mayor accepted the seat in the Senate that he was granted thanks to the Opposition Statute.
However, the process was once again in the hands of the Prosecutor’s Office when Hernández resigned from Congress to run for governor of his native Santander.
Candidate for the Governor of Santander, despite the sanction of the Attorney General’s Office
A couple of weeks ago, the former candidate for the Presidency of Colombia Rodolfo Hernández attended the Registry Office to become official as a candidate for the Governor of Santander, for his Anti-Corruption Rulers League party.
The fact caused curiosity, because a few days before the decision of the Office of the Attorney General of the Nation had been made known to sanction him with a 14-year disqualification from holding public office. Although many believed that the decision was already final, the truth is that it was a first instance measure, so it has not yet become effective.
Thus, Hernández was able to throw himself into the electoral arena and at 78 years old he will compete to govern the land in which he was born and in which he has built his short and highly controversial political career.
Despite being the natural head of his community, to which legal status was handed over after the more than 10 million votes he reached in the 2022 ballot, Hernández had to ask his party for endorsement. It was given to him. The secretary and legal representative of the movement, Adriana Vargas Uribe, issued the document in which she made the former presidential candidate official.
In his political career, Rodolfo Hernández was a Piedecuesta councilor in the last century and mayor of Bucaramanga from 2016 to 2019, a position in which the irregularities for which he is still accused today were allegedly committed. with Infobae
