Alejandro Char, Suspected Money Launderer for Sinaloa Cartel, is Elected Mayor of Barranquilla, Colombia

"Socalj" for Borderland Beat

The businessman and politician Alejandro Char, who is mentioned in an intelligence report on the activities of the Sinaloa Cartel on the Caribbean coast of Colombia, won this Sunday the elections for the Mayor of Barranquilla, the fourth largest city in the country.

Char, of the right-wing Radical Change party, obtained 73% of the votes, 60 points above his closest contender, the leftist candidate Antonio Bohórquez, of the Historical Pact, the political coalition of Colombian President Gustavo Petro.

The businessman and his family are identified in an intelligence report from the Military Attaché Office of the Mexican Embassy in Colombia as alleged participants in a network built by the Sinaloa Cartel on the Colombian Caribbean coast to launder money and control the ports of Barranquilla, Cartagena and Santa Marta to “guarantee their cocaine trafficking routes.”

The report, dated March 18, 2021, and revealed last Monday the 23rd by the Mexican media Eje Central, states that Alejandro Char and his brother Arturo are “two high-value targets” within the investigation into the network.

The four-page report, which was also published last Friday on the website of the Colombian radio station W Radio, contains a copy of the passport with a photograph of Alejandro Char and another of the US visa of his brother Arturo, imprisoned since last September for crimes of electoral corruption and vote buying.

Alejandro Char, who as of January 1, 2024, will be mayor of Barranquilla for the third time, has been governor of the department of Atlántico and part of the family business group, which includes a national chain of supermarkets and pharmacies, radio stations, the Barranquilla newspaper El Heraldo, construction companies, real estate companies, the Junior soccer team and financial activities.

According to the report from the Mexican Military Attaché Office in Bogotá, Banco Serfinanza, owned by the Char family, is used by the Sinaloa Cartel “to mask its financial operations towards Mexico and the United States of America.”

Colombian President Gustavo Petro asked the Financial Superintendency to investigate this complaint on Monday the 23rd.

In a statement released last Wednesday, Alejandro Char said: “We have never had contact with any person who has a relationship with cartels dedicated to drug trafficking or money laundering.” And he claimed to be the victim of a “new setup” to damage his candidacy for Mayor of Barranquilla.

Char Clan

Fuad Char, the father of the brothers, is described as “a Colombian politician, drug trafficker, and businessman of Syrian descent.” In addition to being among the richest men in Colombia and head of the Olímpica Group, he has been a minister, senator, and governor.

In Colombia, the so-called “Clan Char” is pointed out in various journalistic investigations as a political-business emporium that dominates politics on the Colombian Caribbean coast through the purchase of votes and that has enriched itself through public works contracts.

Last August, journalist Laura Ardila published the book about the Char “La Costa Nostra”, where she documents how this political-business clan became a symbol of clientelism, the purchase of votes, corruption, and enrichment with contracts. of the public sector.

In recent years, the governors of the Atlantic and the mayors of several cities in that coastal region have emerged from the “Char Clan,” which also has great influence at the national level. The family is close to former vice president Germán Vargas Lleras, political head of the Cambio Radical party, and to former right-wing presidents Álvaro Uribe and Iván Duque.

Arturo Char

In the 2022 general elections, the now virtual mayor-elect of Barranquilla was a presidential candidate for a right-wing coalition and his brother Arturo was president of the Senate between 2020 and 2021.

Source Proceso