Medellín, Colombia – Prominent female journalists, writers, academics and columnists in Colombia have drafted and signed a declaration titled ‘No to the pact of silence’ in response to former president Andrés Pastrana’s appearance in the Jeffrey Epstein files.
Andrés Pastrana (1998-2002) was mentioned 57 times in files linked to Epstein, who was convicted for sexual trafficking and exploitation of minors before his death in 2019. The ex-president appeared in the batch of documents released last November by the U.S. Justice Department.
The declaration called on Pastrana to issue a statement as a matter of public interest, posed 20 questions to the ex-president, and demanded urgent measures to protect women and girls in Colombia.
The Epstein files have caused scandal across the world, implicating some of the world’s richest and most powerful people, including names like Bill Clinton and Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.
Epstein and his partner, Ghislaine Maxwell, were both convicted for their involvement in the sex trafficking network. Epstein was found dead in 2019 in his prison cell in New York and Maxwell has been in prison since 2022.
In Colombia, the release last November of 3 million additional files linked to investigations into Epstein revealed connections between Pastrana and the late billionaire.
These included: a photo of Pastrana and Maxwell wearing Colombian Air Force uniforms at a military base; compromising emails with Maxwell; testimonies in which Maxwell said the two were friends and that she flew a Black Hawk helicopter in Colombia; and an alleged flight on a private plane with Epstein and disgraced modelling agent Jean Luc Brunel, who was accused of procuring minors for the late financier.
The ‘No to the pact of silence’ declaration was conceived mostly by female journalists while they were investigating Pastrana’s involvement in the files.
The statement was published on February 24, signed by 35 women, but has since been opened up to include other women through one-to-one invitations.
“The crimes committed by Epstein and Maxwell, and their extensive network of accomplices among the world’s social, political, financial, and intellectual elites, must be subject to exposure, investigation, thorough analysis, and, if applicable sanctions,” the declaration stated.
Colombian journalist Ana Cristina Restrepo, one of the creators and signatories of the declaration, spoke to The Bogotá Post about the reasons behind it.
“It is of public interest in several aspects. First, because he is a person who was elected by popular vote. He was a President of the Republic, and with greater responsibility comes greater scrutiny from citizens,” said Restrepo.
Currently, the declaration has 171 signatures that meet three requirements: to be a woman, to be a feminist, and to have a public voice. Signatures must also be made in individual names, not on behalf of collectives.
While there were men that showed support and wanted to sign the statement, Restrepo explained that only women were allowed: “Many thanks, but they – men – can write their own declaration. Why didn’t they think of it before?” “It has a symbolic power that we are all women,” she added.
The statement also took aim at the wider issue of sexual violence in Colombia. It highlighted that more than 50 minors are abused per day, according to the Institute of Legal Medicine in 2025. Also, in the last five years more than 100,000 girls and adolescents were victims of sexual abuse, according to the Colombian Family Welfare Institute (ICBF).
“Women’s human rights and the primacy of girls’ rights are historic achievements: protecting them is a mandatory duty. We demand that the silence surrounding the mentions of Andrés Pastrana in the Epstein files be broken,” the declaration stated.
Restrepo said that the pact of silence their statement seeks to redress is “one arm of something bigger”: a patriarchal pact that has existed for centuries.
“It is a tacit pact among men who hold power and belong to the elites to protect one another in the different things they do – not only sexual crimes, but also, let’s say, economic matters,and issues in society. They cover for each other,” she explained.
In addition to calling for an end to the pact of silence, the declaration posed 20 questions to Pastrana. These were drafted based on the Epstein files, but also with other evidence, following a methodological journalistic investigation by Restrepo, Diana Salinas and the Cuestión Pública team, Daniel Coronell and Ana Bejarano.
“Everything is based on published and known facts, not on assumptions,” Restrepo explained.
Each question has a lengthy preamble that contains corroborated evidence including pictures, email threads, timelines, interviews, and testimonies. All questions have to do with Pastrana’s relationship with Epstein and Maxwell, their meetings, mentions in the list, contradictions in his statements and related matters.
“Asking questions is not incrimination,” she said. “We are saying: If he has nothing to hide, then answer.”
Since the declaration was released, many prominent figures have come to Pastrana’s defense.
Following its publication, Pastrana’s former ministers and others who were part of his administration issued a statement of solidarity with the ex-president: “We know Andrés Pastrana and we worked with him as part of his administration… He is a good man of strong values, respectful of his family and human dignity. His character and his track record do not correspond to being involved in infamous conduct,” the statement said.
The signatories have also faced verbal attacks since the declaration was published, including from public figures. One of the primary sources of the abuse has been the former president’s brother, Juan Carlos Pastrana, with Restrepo saying, “he has been one of the most violent.”
For Restrepo, this reaction highlights the very problem the declaration seeks to redress – that powerful men protect their own.
She also noted that the so-called ‘pact of silence’ extends far beyond Colombia.
“The U.S. Department of Justice releases the Epstein files. In other words, they already knew this information and had it stored… There are files from 2003; there are files that are more than 20 years old,” said Restrepo.
“How do you manage to keep information about a network involved in trafficking and sexual exploitation of minors for more than 20 years if not through a pact of silence? So it is a pact of silence that exists not only in Colombia, but also among elites around the world,” she concluded.
Featured image description: Split image of former President Andres Pastrana and the initial declaration signed by 35 women.
Featured image credit: @AndresPastrana_ via X.
The post Top female journalists demand answers over Colombia ex-president’s Epstein links appeared first on The Bogotá Post.
President Gustavo Petro accused Ecuador on Monday of carrying out bombing raids inside Colombian territory, sharply escalating a diplomatic and trade dispute that has been simmering since January.
Petro said “27 charred bodies” have been found near the border and suggested the attacks could not have been carried out by illegal armed groups, though he presented no evidence to support the claim.
“Ecuador is bombing us, and these are not illegal armed groups,” Petro said during a televised cabinet meeting, warning of a serious breach of sovereignty.
Ecuador’s President Daniel Noboa swiftly rejected the accusation.
“President Petro, your statements are false; we are acting within our own territory,” Noboa said, adding that Ecuadorian forces were targeting “narco-terrorist structures” operating near the border.
Petro said a bomb believed to have been dropped from an aircraft had been discovered near the frontier, reinforcing what he described as a pattern of cross-border strikes.
“A bomb has appeared, dropped from a plane… very close to the border with Ecuador,” Petro said. “We must investigate thoroughly, but this supports my suspicion that Ecuador is bombing us.”
He added that “many explosions” had been reported and said his government would soon release an audio recording allegedly originating from Ecuador.
In a post on social media platform X, Petro said the bombings did not appear to come from Colombian armed forces or illegal groups, which he argued lack the capability to carry out aerial attacks. “The explanation (from Ecuador) is not credible,” he wrote, without specifying when or where the deaths occurred.
Ecuador doubles down
Noboa, facing a surge in organized crime violence at home, has adopted an aggressive military strategy that includes aerial bombardments of suspected cartel camps near the Colombian border.
His government says the operations are conducted strictly within Ecuadorian territory and are often aimed at groups with Colombian origins, including FARC dissidents. “Together with international cooperation, we continue this fight, bombing locations used as hideouts by these groups, many of them Colombian,” Noboa said in a statement.
He also accused Colombia of failing to control its side of the border, allowing criminal organizations to spill into Ecuador.
The latest confrontation comes against the backdrop of a worsening trade dispute that began in January when Ecuador imposed a 30% “security tariff” on Colombian imports, citing Bogotá’s alleged inaction against narcotrafficking.
The tariff was later increased to 50%.
Colombia retaliated with tariffs on 73 products, suspended electricity exports to Ecuador, and imposed restrictions on bilateral trade, deepening tensions between the neighboring countries.
Ecuador responded by raising fees on the transport of Colombian crude through one of its main pipelines.
Despite early attempts to contain the fallout, relations have steadily deteriorated, culminating in the current exchange of accusations.
Risk of escalation
Petro’s latest claims mark the most serious rupture yet, raising the specter of a cross-border military incident between the two countries, which share a long and porous frontier plagued by drug trafficking and illegal mining.
The Colombian president said he had appealed to Donald Trump to intervene diplomatically.“I asked him to act and call the president of Ecuador because we do not want to go to war,” he said.
The involvement of the United States adds another layer of complexity. Ecuador recently deepened security cooperation with Washington, including the establishment of a new FBI office and joint operations targeting organized crime. Earlier this month, Ecuadorian and U.S. forces conducted strikes on a camp linked to the Comandos de la Frontera, a dissident faction of the FARC guerrilla.
The Colombia–Ecuador border has long been a strategic corridor for cocaine trafficking, with armed groups exploiting weak state presence on both sides. While the border itself is not disputed, diverging security strategies have increasingly brought Bogotá and Quito into conflict.
Petro’s government has prioritized negotiations with armed groups under its “Total Peace” policy, while Noboa has pursued a hardline military crackdown.
For now, the allegations from Casa de Nariño remain unverified, but the political damage is done – and one further miscalculation could carry deep consequences far beyond the shared border.
Colombia’s migration authority Migración Colombia denied entry last week to 10 foreign nationals suspected of seeking sex tourism, marking the largest single-day refusal of its kind at Medellín’s main international gateway, officials said.
The individuals — nine from the United States and one from Anguilla — were stopped at José María Córdova International Airport on March 11 after migration officers concluded their travel did not correspond to legitimate tourism.
Authorities said the group arrived on a flight from Miami with a stopover in Panama and voluntarily allowed inspections of their luggage. Officials reported finding sex toys and large quantities of condoms which, along with interview responses, raised suspicions about the purpose of their visit.
In a separate case the same day, the Anguillan national, arriving from the Dominican Republic, told officials he intended to “select women to have sexual relations” in his home country, prompting his immediate inadmission.
The measures form part of a broader government effort to curb human trafficking and sexual exploitation, following directives issued by President Gustavo Petro to strengthen migration controls.
“This is about protecting local communities and preventing Colombia from being used as a destination for illicit activities,” said Gloria Esperanza Arriero, director of Migración Colombia, praising officers in the Antioquia–Chocó regional unit for their rigorous enforcement.
The agency said the refusals were applied as a preventive measure under existing migration law, which grants authorities discretion to deny entry to foreigners who fail to meet requirements or pose risks to public safety or human rights.
The latest cases bring to 26 the number of foreign nationals denied entry in 2026 at the Rionegro airport for suspected links to sexual exploitation. In 2025, authorities recorded 110 such inadmissions nationwide, with roughly 80 occurring at the same terminal, the principal international gateway to Medellín.
Officials say the figures underscore the airport’s strategic importance in detecting early attempts to enter the country for illicit purposes, particularly in a city whose nightlife districts have drawn increasing international scrutiny in recent years.
Migration enforcement has also expanded beyond airports. Authorities reported recent operations in Medellín targeting suspected criminal networks linked to sexual exploitation, drug trafficking and theft in nightlife areas such as Parque Lleras.
In one case, two foreign nationals with criminal records in Venezuela were located in the El Poblado district. One of them, a Venezuelan woman known as “Kata,” had been sentenced to nine years in prison for human trafficking by a court in Caracas. She was expelled after officials confirmed the ruling through Venezuela’s consulate.
Investigators said she had operated in Colombia using falsified documents and was allegedly involved in prostitution networks and drug distribution in Medellín’s nightlife zones, highlighting the challenges authorities face in monitoring transnational criminal activity.
A second suspect, identified as “Gokú,” a dual Colombian-Venezuelan national, was wanted in Venezuela for charges including aggravated robbery, homicide and illegal possession of firearms. Authorities said he posed as a tourist while facilitating theft operations tied to criminal groups.
Separately, migration officials in Bogotá located a French national subject to an Interpol red notice in a hotel near the U.S. Embassy district. The individual was wanted for child abduction and document falsification and was handed over to the relevant authorities following verification of the international warrant.
Migración Colombia said the case was one of nearly 40 alerts recorded so far in 2026 across multiple regions, including Bogotá, Boyacá, Caquetá, Huila and Tolima, involving migration violations and international judicial requests.
The agency added that these operations have led to arrests and more than ten expulsions of foreign nationals this year, underscoring an intensification of enforcement efforts across the country.
In a separate incident underscoring authorities’ concerns, Colombian police arrested a 46-year-old U.S. citizen in Medellín after he was found with a 14-year-old girl in a short-term rental apartment in the El Poblado area, according to local media reports.
The case was triggered by an anonymous tip to the emergency line, prompting officers from the police child protection unit to respond. Authorities said the minor, still in her school uniform, told investigators the man had contacted her through social media to solicit sexual services.
The suspect was detained and faces charges related to the commercial sexual exploitation of a minor under 18, police said. Authorities did not immediately release further details on his identity or legal status.
Officials say the inadmissions at Rionegro reflect a broader trend seen in 2025, when most of the 110 foreigners denied entry over suspected sex tourism were U.S. nationals, reinforcing concerns about the international dimension of the issue.
Authorities say they will continue strengthening coordination with international bodies to prevent Colombia from being used as a destination for sexual exploitation or as a refuge for individuals attempting to evade justice.
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