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Loans and a lease agreement involving companies connected to the siblings of Colombia’s First Lady, Verónica Alcocer, have drawn scrutiny due to their ties to a state-owned bank and an official with close connections to President Gustavo Petro. The transactions, totaling over 8 billion pesos (approximately $2 million USD), occurred between 2022 and 2025 while Hernando Chica Zuccardi led Banco Agrario, a financial institution administered by the government.
Chica Zuccardi has a decade-long working relationship with Petro, dating back to his time as mayor of Bogotá. He also shares familial and political connections with Alcocer, both originating from Sincelejo and having ties to Cesar province politicians. According to reports, Alcocer advocated for Chica Zuccardi’s appointment to the bank in September 2022, a move that subsequently coincided with business interests involving her family.
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Within months of Chica Zuccardi’s appointment, plans for a real estate venture surfaced, initially proposed through two loan applications.
An email dated November 23, 2022, from Andrés Niño Castrillón, then head of strategic alliances for the agricultural bank, detailed a project involving PRAGA Servicios Inmobiliarios S.A. and FEMA Reforestaciones S.A.S. to his team. The proposal included two loans, one for 4.236 billion pesos and another for 3.767 billion pesos. At the time, María Teresa Alcocer held 89.8% ownership of PRAGA and 25% of FEMA, with her husband, Carlos Gutiérrez, owning another 25% of FEMA.
The proposed plan stipulated that rental income generated from the project would be directly deposited into the bank to secure loan repayment. While loan approval itself isn’t illegal, the situation raises questions about the use of public banking to support real estate ventures in Bogotá linked to the President’s family, particularly given the bank’s primary focus on agricultural development. The loan requests remain pending, currently stalled in the “zonal commercial management” department.
In March 2023, a second email was sent to the credit structuring department, seeking technical and financial feasibility for a 5 billion peso loan intended for AFORESTAR SAS, FEMA Reforestaciones SAS, and Nelson Eduardo Silva, with a 72-month repayment term and involvement from Finagro. FEMA is jointly owned by María Teresa Alcocer and her husband, and controls 90% of AFORESTAR, according to the investigation.
Branch Lease Agreement
Documents cited in reports show the bank’s commercial department requested a risk assessment from Sarlaft regarding the loans associated with PRAGA and FEMA. Bank officials reviewed background information, capital structure, and ownership details of the companies. One report included links to news articles about María Teresa Alcocer and Carlos Gutiérrez: a column by Daniel Coronell in Semana regarding the La Conejera project, references in the Panama Papers, and an investigation by Armando.info linking Gutiérrez to Alex Saab.
The report explicitly requested a reputational risk assessment and recommended against issuing a favorable commercial opinion. Other internal reports reached similar conclusions, categorizing the risk as “high.” The investigation noted the transactions involved Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs), a designation requiring enhanced scrutiny within the financial system due to potential risks of corruption and money laundering, as defined by standards like those from LexisNexis Risk Solutions.
In addition to these pending loans, the internal Cobis system recorded a disbursed loan of 898 million pesos to ALIADOS Financieros y de Servicios SAS ZOMAC. Records from the 2023 shareholders’ meeting show that FEMA, owned by María Teresa Alcocer and her husband, holds 100% of the shares in this company.
The Alcocer family’s interests with Banco Agrario also extended to a lease agreement. The bank branch located at Carrera 17, No. 100 in Bogotá was relocated in March 2025 to Carrera 49, No. 100. The bank signed a ten-year, 3.669 billion peso lease agreement with CENTUM BUSINESS SAS, managed by INALCA Colombia SAS, with a monthly rent of 30 million pesos.
Recent records from the Chamber of Commerce indicate that Juan Carlos Alcocer serves as president of CENTUM, and PRAGA holds a majority stake in the company. PRAGA, in turn, is 95% owned by María Teresa Alcocer. As a result, the branch now operates within the same building that was central to the real estate venture proposed for the 8 billion peso loans.
The situation raises concerns about potential conflicts of interest given Chica Zuccardi’s connections to the Alcocer family. Critics suggest the possibility of preferential treatment being afforded to those with close ties to the current administration. The question of whether President Petro was aware of these dealings has also emerged.
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