On Friday, Colombia’s Supreme Court granted bail to former Senate president Iván Name and former House of Representatives president Andrés Calle after their bribery trial failed to open within the legal limit. The ruling allows their release while the case continues; it doesn’t clear either man of the accusations. The indictment alleges senior officials agreed to pay congressional leaders to support pension and health reforms, using money linked to a contract for water trucks intended for La Guajira.
The court’s deadline ruling
The court’s Special First Instance Chamber, which tries members of Congress, issued the order after considering a request from the men’s defence lawyers. It applied Article 365 of Law 600 of 2000, the criminal procedure code governing the case. That provision allows release if a trial hasn’t opened within six months after charges become final, extending the limit to 12 months when the court has ordered evidence from abroad.
The charges against Name and Calle became final on 7 October 2025. The chamber said the extended deadline expired on Wednesday, 7 October 2026. The men had been held in this case since 7 May 2025. The chamber said neither its negligence nor stalling tactics by the defence caused the delay.
Since March, the chamber has heard 12 witnesses and worked to obtain documents it ordered as evidence. In April, it rejected the men’s earlier release request, finding that the applicable deadline was 12 months rather than six. The Supreme Court’s Criminal Cassation Chamber upheld that decision on 22 July.
Release remains conditional
The order, Auto AEP140-2026, doesn’t mean Name and Calle will leave prison immediately. Each must post bail of 10 monthly minimum wages, or 17,509,050 pesos, about US$5,400, in cash or through an insurance policy. Each must also sign a written commitment and tell the court exactly where he can be found.
The ruling warns that breaking the conditions could lead to a fine and the loss of release. Before either man leaves, La Picota prison in southern Bogotá, where both were held, must check whether another authority seeks him. The parties may challenge the decision through reconsideration or an appeal. The court hasn’t set a date for the trial hearing, and it was unknown when the men would leave prison.
Allegations involve disaster-relief resources
The case stems from alleged corruption at the UNGRD, Colombia’s national disaster risk management unit, which handles relief after floods, droughts and earthquakes. The indictment says senior officials in the government of former president Gustavo Petro agreed in September 2023 to pay the heads of both congressional chambers to support pension and health reforms.
It alleges that officials delivered the money between 12 and 14 October 2023. Name was allegedly to receive 3 billion pesos, about US$927,000, and Calle 1 billion pesos, about US$309,000. According to the indictment, the funds came from a loan later repaid with a kickback from a contract for 40 water trucks intended for La Guajira, a desert region on Colombia’s Caribbean coast. The contract was worth 46.8 billion pesos, about US$14.5 million.
Olmedo López and Sneyder Pinilla, the agency’s former director and deputy director, are key witnesses. Evidence still pending includes testimony from Carlos Ramón González, who headed the presidency’s administrative department under Petro and is also under investigation in the scandal. González has been in Nicaragua for more than two years; whether he’ll testify remains unknown. Name and Calle deny the accusations and remain presumed innocent unless a court rules otherwise. In a separate case, a court has barred Name from Congress for life over absences from Senate debates on pension reform.