Colombia's Germán Calderón launches anti‑corruption probes in transition

Germán Calderón, a native of Huila, has been appointed director of the Agencia Nacional de Defensa Jurídica del Estado and will lead the anti‑corruption team of the incoming administration of President‑elect Abelardo de La Espriña. Within days of taking office, Calderón filed two criminal complaints. The first targets the Agencia Nacional de Tierras (ANT) over a land‑reform agreement with the Sociedad de Activos Especiales that allocated 500 billion pesos, of which 80 % of funds have been disbursed while no work has begun, raising the risk of lands without proper titles. The second complaint concerns Cenit, an Ecopetrol subsidiary, alleging that a 21 billion‑peso legal‑advisory contract was awarded to a firm with only 117 million pesos in capital and connections to Cenit’s vice‑president for legal affairs. Both actions are part of a broader forensic audit of the government transition, aiming to curb clientelism and mismanagement in key state agencies.