(CNN Español) – The Speaker of the Colombian Chamber of Deputies, Jennifer Arias, appears to have joined an exclusive but notorious club of global reach: the club of politicians who have been accused of plagiarizing her academic theses.

Externado University in Colombia determined In a statement on Monday, the foundation said that after months of investigation, there was plagiarism in Arias’ master’s thesis in government and public policy. He indicated that the legislator and her partner will go to court to request the cancellation of the master’s degree.

Arias, who belongs to the ruling Democratic Center Party, said on Monday in his speech law Project From Twitter he is innocent and did not impersonate.

This isn’t the first time that politicians have been accused of plagiarism in their academic theses, for which they earned degrees to improve their resumes and advance their careers.

After that, politicians were accused of plagiarism in their academic theses

Enrique Peña Nieto, former President of Mexico

In 2016, a press investigation was conducted in Aristegui news The then President of Mexico, Enrique Peña Nieto, was accused of plagiarize Approximately 30% of his final thesis is at Pan American University.

With this help, Peña Nieto obtained a law degree in 1991.

According to the research conducted by specialists and academics in his thesis entitled Mexican Presidency and lvaro ObregónPeña Nieto “stole at least 197 of the 982 paragraphs that make up the text.” That represents 28.8% of the content, according to the press team.

Spokesperson for the then Presidency of Mexico, Eduardo Sanchez, eviction Results when considered “irregularities” and “stylistic errors such as citations without quotation marks or failure to refer to authors included in the bibliography”.

He stressed that “the lawyer, Peña Nieto, submitted this thesis 25 years ago. He fulfilled the requirements set by the University of Panamericana to qualify as a lawyer.”

Vladimir Putin, President of Russia

Putin was accused in 2006 of stealing his graduate thesis at the Saint Petersburg Mining Institute, which was submitted in 1996 or 1997, according to researchers from Brookings Institution.

Russian President Vladimir Putin. (Image source: VLADIMIR SMIRNOV/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

“It’s all about plagiarism,” She said Clifford C. Jade of the Brookings Institution at the time, after reading the document. “Whether you’re talking about a college-level document, let alone a formal thesis, there is no doubt in my mind that this would be plagiarism.”

according to Investigation16 out of 20 pages of a document published by the University of Pittsburgh 20 years ago are in the thesis of Putin, who at that time was working in the St. Petersburg government, without reference to the ref.

Igor Danchenko, who investigated the case with Gadi, Indian At the time of presenting his findings, Putin, in his opinion, did not even write the text accused of plagiarism. “Obviously, this is the product of some kind of ‘certificate factory’ process, of which there are a lot of in Russia,” he explained.

Pal Schmidt, former president of Hungary

Former Olympic fencing champion Pal Schmidt became president of Hungary in 2010. Only two years later he had to resign, as he was embroiled in a scandal after he was Accused of plagiarism PhD thesis.

Pal Schmidt then-President of Hungary in 2011 (Credit: Dennis Grombkowski/Bongarts/Getty Images)

Semmelweis University Budapest, the former physical education university, reported in 2012 after investigation that 200 of the 215 pages of Schmidt’s thesis showed “partial similarities” or were translations of other works.

As a result, he withdrew his Ph.D., and Schmidt ended up resigning the presidency shortly thereafter.

Victor Ponta, former Prime Minister of Romania

In the same year that Schmidt resigned, he was also the then Prime Minister of Romania, Victor Ponta Accused of plagiarism PhD thesis.

Ponta dismissed the accusations and said he was the victim of a political attack by President Traian Basescu.

However, Bucharest University ruled that he stole much of his 2003 PhD at the International Criminal Court, and withdrew his degree in 2014.

Klavdija Markez, former Minister of Education of Slovenia

Just five days after taking office, then-Slovenian Education Minister Klavdija Marques resigned in April 2015 after being accused in local media of stealing her master’s thesis, he said. Reuters this year.

Marquez did not comment on the accusation.

Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, former German Defense Minister

German Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg was considered a rising star in Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government. Accused In 2011 he plagiarized his doctoral thesis and the University of Bayreuth canceled his degree.

Although zu Guttenberg dismissed the allegations, he was forced to resign his position in goodbye to his rising career after receiving widespread public criticism.

In Germany he was nicknamed “Baron zu Googleberg”, in reference to the popular Internet search engine, and “Minister of Cut and Paste”.

Annette Schavan, former German Minister of Health

Like teammate zu Guttenberg, Schavan was too Accused of plagiarizing her PhD thesis 1980 and in 2013 the University of Dusseldorf ended with the withdrawal of the title.

On this occasion, plagiarism was alerted by a blogger who painstakingly made comparisons between Schavan’s work and other publications.

John Walsh, former US Senator

Retired soldier and Democrat John Walsh became a United States Senator from Montana in 2014, replacing his colleague who opted to retire.

But Walsh had to resign from his re-election campaign the same year he was Accused of plagiarism In a master’s thesis in search of New York times.

Apparently, three-quarters of the 20-page document titled “The Case for Democracy as a Long-Term National Strategy” was marked as plagiarism, and he decided to withdraw from the election.

Monica Crowley, Donald Trump Administration Official

Conservative writer Monica Crowley was nominated by Donald Trump as Director of Strategic Communications at the National Security Council to join his new government in 2017.

But before Trump’s inauguration, Crowley stepped aside after discovering CNN Multiple examples of plagiarism In his book published in 2012, in his columns in the Washington Times, and in his thesis for Ph.D. from Columbia University.

Crowley rejection She asserted the accusations, “that I have never used or will use material from a source without citing it.”

The writer finally entered the Trump administration two years later and regardless of these accusations: in July 2019 she became the spokeswoman from the Treasury.

With information from Farida Fawzy on CNN