Edwin José Besaile Fayad

Edwin José Besaile Fayad (born June 21, 1980) is a Colombian architect and politician, who was governor of the department of Córdoba for the Union Party for the People. He is a member of the Besaile Fayad clan, with his brothers, former senator Musa Besaile, and the former mayor of the municipality of Sahagún Jhon Moisés Besaile.

In the governorship, he replaced Alejandro Lyons (2012–2015), and both were immersed in numerous multi-million dollar corruption cases during their administrations, especially the Hemophilia Cartel. Lyons in confession before the Attorney General's Office testified that Governor Edwin Besaile gave millions from corruption and to Senator Musa Besaile, who kept half the money they obtained from irregular contracts and royalties from Córdoba. Part of the money was used to finance the campaign for the governorship of Edwin Besaile in 2015.

In 2019, the Córdoba Attorney General dismissed Besaile from his position and barred him from holding public office for the next ten years.

Early life Edwin is the son of Syrian-Lebanese migrant Musa Abraham Besaile Jalife and Yolanda María Fayad from Cartagena, also of Middle Eastern ancestry. His father settled in Colombia in the early 1950s, working for other Middle Eastern migrants already established in the Sahagun region, and grew his business growing rice until he became the founder of one of the largest rice from the Colombian Caribbean coast, Arrocera Palmira.

From the Besayle-Fayad union were born the children Yamil José, Jhon Moisés alias "Jhonny Besaile" and who was mayor of Sahagún, former senator Musa, Edwin and Yolanda María. His wife is the cousin of the representative to the Chamber Raymundo Méndez Bechara.

According to the newspaper El Espectador in a 2018 report, between the brothers they have some 87 properties in Córdoba, most of them in the vicinity of the municipality of Sahagún.

Secretary of Planning of Córdoba

Governor of Córdoba (2016-2019) After a political agreement between his brother Musa Besayle and the Sahagunense politician Bernardo Elías "Los ñoños", Edwin was nominated for the governorship of Córdoba to replace Governor Alejandro Lyons. The government control entity found that the governor, through the contract, unjustifiably fattened the earnings of the IPS.

Neurological therapies cartel In February 2018, the Attorney General's Office opened charges against Alejandro Lyons and Edwin Besayle in relation to another scandal affecting the health benefits of Cordobans

According to the Attorney General's Office, the government of Córdoba, during the tenurias of Lyons and Besayle, between 2014 and 2017, made payments of about COP$ 7 billion pesos for therapies with the Institution Providers of Health (IPS) "Funtierra Foundation Rehabilitation" of Montería,

In 2016, the Comptroller General of the Republic carried out an audit of the resources of the General System of Participations (SGP) and found that the Ministry of Health of Córdoba did not verify that the treatments for which they were paying were carried out, and many of the treatments they do not have verification supports. El ente de control encontró responsables por el desfalco al gobernador de Córdoba, Edwin Besaile, y al auditor médico de la secretaría de salud, Juan David Náder, mientras que se vinculó a los hallazgos a los representantes de Funtierra Tania Otero Arroyo y Eduardo Padilla Hernández.

Funtierra Rehabilitation LTDA Foundation: with legal representative, dentist Tania Otero Arroyo, and legal advisor Eduardo Padilla Hernández. Ana Karina is the cousin of the former senator of the republic Bernardo "Ñoño" Elías, a political and criminal ally of the brothers Musa and Edwin Besayle. The legal representative of this IPS is Diana Carolina Spath Espinosa, who is the cousin of Sami Spath Storino, friend and partner of Alejandro Lyons .

The authorities announced that the owner of the IPS Crecer y Sonreír Unidad de Rehabilitation S.A.S., Yolima Rangel Yáñez bribed the then prosecutor Daniel Díaz for COP$200 million pesos, linked to the network of the cartel de la toga of the magistrates and with the anti-corruption prosecutor Luis Gustavo Moreno, so that the Prosecutor's Office acquitted her of the therapy corruption case, in addition to diverting the investigation against Funtierra's legal representative, the dentist Tania Otero Arroyo. Embezzlement also occurred in the administrations of Alejandro Lyons and Edwin Besayle.

In the Down Syndrome cartel, Ana Karina Elías is linked, who is the cousin of the former senator of the Cordoban republic Bernardo "Ñoño" Elías, a political and criminal ally of the Musa brothers and Edwin Besayle.

Besayle was replaced by Sandra Patricia Devia, who was appointed acting governor on March 5, 2019 until the end of the period of departmental government; on December 31, 2019. Devia was chosen in the list presented by the Partido de la U, before the President of the Nation Iván Duque