From BBC News · · 1m 30s
Colombia's ex-foreign minister charged over nanny polygraph
A missing case of cash, a nanny strapped to a lie detector, and a top presidential aide now facing prosecutors.
In brief
A missing case of cash, a nanny strapped to a lie detector, and a top presidential aide now facing prosecutors. Prosecutors say Sarabia turned state police power into a private investigation of her own household staff, and she kept rising through government for two years afterwards. Originally reported by BBC News.
Prosecutors name the minister
Colombian prosecutors have accused Laura Sarabia, the country's former foreign minister, of abusing her power by making her nanny sit a lie detector test.
Money missing from the flat
The scandal broke in 2023 when Semana reported that a woman hired to care for Sarabia's son was hooked to a polygraph over a case of cash said to have vanished from Sarabia's flat.
It felt like a kidnapping
Nanny Marelbys Meza said Sarabia's driver drove her to an official building opposite the presidential palace, where police attached her to the machine and questioned her about the money.
“a kidnapping”
She denied it then and since
Meza denied stealing anything during the test itself, and has repeated that denial in every media interview in the years since.
State resources, private matter
The charge is specific: as chief of staff to President Gustavo Petro, Sarabia ordered police to investigate something that had nothing to do with her official post.
Resigned, then promoted twice
Sarabia, now 32, quit in June 2023 but was later made foreign minister, then ambassador to the UK. She rejected the accusation at a hearing and denies wrongdoing.
The big picture
Prosecutors say Sarabia turned state police power into a private investigation of her own household staff, and she kept rising through government for two years afterwards.
