Colombian Minister Quits Amid Scandal
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BOGOTA, Colombia — Colombia’s mines and energy minister resigned Saturday amid charges that he pressured the state oil company to sell cheap natural gas to a U.S. multinational corporation with links to a private-sector firm he once headed.
The official government news agency, ANCOL, said the outgoing minister, Luis Carlos Valenzuela, tendered his “irrevocable resignation” to President Andres Pastrana early Saturday.
ANCOL said Pastrana named Carlos Caballero Argaez, former head of the Bogota stock exchange, to replace Valenzuela.
Atty. Gen. Jaime Bernal Cuellar said in mid-November that he had opened an inquiry into allegations by a leading lawmaker that Valenzuela tried to use his influence to hand Houston-based Enron Corp. virtually exclusive rights to export Colombia’s natural gas output for 15 years.
Valenzuela denied any wrongdoing, and there were no charges that Enron committed any improprieties.
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