Key Points
It started with a photograph that nobody in Colombia could look away from: Andrés Pastrana and Ghislaine Maxwell, smiling and embracing in Colombian Air Force flight suits. That image, released by the U.S. Department of Justice as part of more than three million pages of Epstein-related documents, has transformed a long-simmering question about the former president’s associations into a full political crisis.
What the Documents Show
Pastrana’s name appears around thirty times in the DOJ files. The references include email exchanges with Maxwell — Epstein’s convicted accomplice, now serving a twenty-year sentence — coordinating travel logistics, New York arrivals and transport arrangements during 2003 and 2004. In a sworn statement, Maxwell said she and Pastrana became friends through a shared love of flying and that she piloted a military Blackhawk helicopter in Colombia at his invitation.
Flight logs from March 2003 place Pastrana on Epstein’s private jet, known as the “Lolita Express,” on a trip from Venezuela to the Bahamas that Pastrana says ended in Havana with Fidel Castro. A 2009 email shows Epstein associate Jean-Luc Brunel — a modeling agent later charged with sex trafficking — coordinating a meeting with Pastrana about business in Cuba. In a separate message, Epstein himself instructed Brunel to contact Pastrana about a property deal on the island.
A Colombian Victim in the Files
The documents also revealed that among Epstein’s victims was a Colombian girl from Bogotá, recruited into the trafficking network in 1998 at the age of twelve. She traveled to the United States between 1998 and 2003. In 2008, the FBI contacted Colombia’s now-defunct intelligence agency, the DAS, to locate her and offer enrollment in a victim protection program. She declined. Authorities tried again in 2020 without success.
The Political Fallout
The revelations have triggered two simultaneous confrontations. Senator Iván Cepeda, who is running for president under the ruling Pacto Histórico coalition, announced on February 9 that he would file a criminal complaint against Pastrana. Cepeda’s complaint focuses on two questions: the nature of Pastrana’s contacts with the Epstein network, and the alleged misuse of military assets — specifically, allowing Maxwell access to Colombian Air Force equipment and uniforms during her visit.
President Gustavo Petro escalated the matter publicly, asking on X how a convicted sex trafficker’s accomplice could have been allowed to wear a Colombian military uniform. Pastrana fired back, calling Cepeda a “blackmailer” and citing a DOJ-released email in which he wrote that he did not trust Epstein. He has not addressed the broader pattern of documented contact.
Silence as a Strategy
Separately, thirty-five women from Colombia’s journalism, legal and public service communities signed an open letter demanding that Pastrana break what they called a “pact of silence.” The signatories framed their demand as a civic obligation, arguing that in a country where more than fifty minors are sexually abused daily, the proximity of a former head of state to a global trafficking network requires explanation, not dismissal.
Pastrana responded on X by rejecting the letter as an attack on his dignity. He denied any connection to Epstein. He offered no further detail. Presidential candidate Juan Fernando Cristo publicly backed the women, saying it was not the time for silence.
The Epstein files have already triggered arrests abroad — Prince Andrew was detained in Britain on February 19, and former diplomat Peter Mandelson days later. In Colombia, the legal and political consequences are still forming. But the central tension is familiar in a country where institutional distrust runs deep: documents keep arriving, and the explanations do not keep pace.