Medellín's Comptroller's Office detected a new irregularity in the Aguas Vivas megaplot case, in which former mayor Daniel Quintero was charged.

NewsThe oversight entity caused the city a multimillion-dollar patrimonial loss, stemming from an irregular process carried out by the administration. The Comptroller's Office of Medellín detected a new irregularity in the Aguas Vivas megalot case. Photo: EL TIEMPO. MEDELLÍN JOURNALIST30.09.2026 15:54 Updated: 30.09.2026 15:54 The Aguas Vivas megalot case is one of the main alleged corruption incidents recorded in Medellín during the administration of Daniel Quintero Calle. This particular process directly involves the former mayor, who was charged with the crimes of prevarication and embezzlement by appropriation in favor of third parties, as a result of his actions, which are at the center of the still-active judicial process concerning the administration of the property located between Las Palmas and the municipality of Rionegro. Although in mid-July the judge in the case declared the nullity of the charges against Quintero after considering that the Prosecutor's Office had not set out with sufficient clarity the facts on which it sought to bring the former mayor and other members of his administration to trial, the process remains active and the nullity represented a setback to an earlier stage of it. READ ALSO Hearing in the Aguas Vivas megalot process against Daniel Quintero and 12 officials. Photo: EL TIEMPO. Meanwhile, the District Comptroller's Office of Medellín issued a document this Wednesday, September 30, in which it states that it detected a new irregularity in relation to the disposal of the lot. The document reads: "The District Comptroller's Office of Medellín, through the Special Immediate Reaction Group (GRI 001 of 2026), concluded its oversight action on the Aguas Vivas property, with a temporal scope of 2019-2026. This action was intended to establish the possible existence of an affectation to public patrimony. As a result, an irregular fact was identified that caused a patrimonial loss to the District in the amount of $10,944,242,769." The oversight entity specified that this special group was formed to determine whether the city had suffered a patrimonial affectation due to the way Aguas Vivas was administered during the mentioned period. In that regard, the Comptroller's Office stated that it did indeed detect an irregular fact linked to the management of the property following a conciliation meeting, also considered irregular at the time by the Administrative Court of Antioquia, with the original owners of the property. "The property left the District's patrimony through the unilateral termination of the gratuitous transfer contract, ordered by Resolution 202250110923 of October 26, 2022. The registry inscription, in February 2023, materialized its return to the private parties." Bulletin issued by the Comptroller's Office reporting the detection of the patrimonial detriment. Photo: EL TIEMPO. The Comptroller's Office specified that the estimated value of the property was $52,102,561,701 in 2019 and that later, the appraisal of the lot in 2023 yielded a value of $63,046,804,470. Along those lines, the oversight entity explained: "The increased value attained by the property while it was under public ownership was not recognized to the District when the return was carried out. That circumstance generated the patrimonial loss, quantified at $10,944,242,769." Specifically, according to the Comptroller's Office, the district of Medellín suffered an affectation of close to 11 billion pesos in the framework of the irregular return of the asset, which was in the possession of the city's land bank, to its original owners, who had ceded it under the figure of compensation for future urbanistic obligations. READ ALSO The mess with the 'Aguas Vivas' lotThe case for which the former mayor and a handful of his former officials were charged involves the 'Aguas Vivas' megalot, a 146,000-square-meter property that was ceded to the district administration of Medellín in 2019 through public deed number 5762, in which the district received the property as compensation for urbanistic obligations. This land, located between Las Palmas and the municipality of Rionegro, has construction restrictions established in the POT (Land Use Plan), and therefore, the owners, two construction firms, ended up ceding the land to the city under the aforementioned figure, which represented future construction benefits for them. At its delivery, the land was appraised at $2,711,582,000; however, after a series of unusual appraisals, the land came to be valued at $42,719,344,667. These are the lands that would be subject to the intervention for the Software Valley. Photo: EL TIEMPO. That appreciation triggered a legal dispute between the former owners and the district administration. The former claimed they had been harmed and that they "had lost money," and therefore sought to have the municipality recognize the difference. In fact, a meeting was held between the parties to conciliate, and the district administration ended up agreeing to pay the difference. However, the Administrative Court of Antioquia judged everything that happened as a contravention of the law and also stated that the conciliation represented a serious commitment of public resources that was detrimental to the district's patrimony. Thus, the conciliation minutes were rendered void. But that would not have been the end of the improprieties in the handling of the case. After the decision, and through a resolution issued on October 26, 2022, by Fabio Andrés García Trujillo, deputy secretary of Contractual Execution of the Secretariat of Supplies and Services, the gratuitous transfer contract with the former owners of Aguas Vivas was unilaterally terminated and the lot was returned to them. This action was also irregular, since García's hierarchical position did not correspond to him in order to carry out said administrative act. The Aguas Vivas lot ended up being named Ecoparque Las Palmas, and there, Daniel Quintero's mayoralty intended to shape one of its most ambitious projects, the Software Valley Environmental Park, a large complex made up of all kinds of urban structures. However, due to the characteristics of the land (95% rural and only 5% urban), this approach would go against the POT. Decree 412 of 2023 Photo: EL TIEMPO. On May 12, 2023, former mayor Quintero signed Decree 412, through which the parameters that would give meaning to the Software Valley, the flagship of his administration, were established. That document also set out the regulation of the Software Valley Environmental Park, which would act as the seat of this initiative and would be located on the Aguas Vivas lot, already named Ecoparque Las Palmas. The signing of this document represented going against, precisely, several articles of Medellín's Land Use Plan, since, in order to give meaning to the use of the lot, functions and purposes were established that modified the land use regulated for Aguas Vivas, a procedure for which only the Medellín City Council has the authority. READ ALSO The finding does not constitute responsibilitiesIn the document issued by the Comptroller's Office reporting the detection of this patrimonial affectation against the district of Medellín, the oversight entity itself clarified that the confirmation of the patrimonial detriment does not by itself constitute a declaration of responsibilities. In that regard, the Comptroller's Office specified: "It is a technical input that initiates a subsequent stage, in which the facts will be identified and the evidence will be assessed with full guarantees of due process, contradiction, and defense. Until there is a final decision, the presumption of innocence of all persons and entities that could be linked is respected." Fragment of the request for extraordinary conciliation, rejected by the Court of Antioquia. Photo: EL TIEMPO. In any case, the body of evidence and the conclusions derived from it were transferred to the Auxiliary Comptroller's Office for Fiscal Responsibility and Coactive Jurisdiction, the department in charge of carrying out any proceedings that may apply. For its part, the next hearing in the framework of the judicial process being carried out for the 'Aguas Vivas' case, which involves former mayor Daniel Quintero, is scheduled for this October 15. In this proceeding, subsequent to the declaration of nullity of the charges, Quintero's defenders and those of the other charged former officials will take part, within the framework of the appeal filed by the victims against the first-instance decision issued by the 22nd criminal circuit court of Medellín. NICOLÁS TAMAYO ESCALANTEJournalist for Nación, in Medellín. Follow all the news from Colombia on Facebook and Twitter, or in our weekly newsletter. 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