Nicolás Petro Burgos is on probation after a judge’s decision in Bogotá. The process for the alleged illegal receipt of funds, which could have partially financed the campaign of today’s President Gustavo Petro, continues. Petro’s eldest son will continue to be linked to the process from the city of Barranquilla, in the north of the country. This Saturday, August 5, Petro Burgos assured the Colombian magazine ‘Semana’ that he had indeed received illicit money, but that the president and his campaign manager had no knowledge of it.
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Nicolás Petro, the eldest son of the Colombian president and former coordinator of his presidential campaign on the Atlantic coast, was provisionally released and linked to a legal process for illicit enrichment and money laundering; along with his ex-wife, who is also accused of money laundering and violation of personal data. The process, which has affected the Colombian president, his campaign and various politicians, is about to begin.
Municipal Criminal Judge 74 in the Colombian capital accepted the requests of Petro’s defense and ruled that the security measure requested by the Prosecutor’s Office, for this case, would not be necessary, given the collaboration announced with the Justice by the president’s son. However, neither he nor his ex-wife will be able to leave Barranquilla, northern Colombia, and even less the country.
The defendant affirmed that in jail “they would wait for him to kill him.”
After a week with cinematographic edges for the Colombian political leader and several members of his family and political environment. Nicolás Petro declared to the Prosecutor’s Office that he did enter resources, not reported, to the campaign of the current president, but that President Gustavo Petro had no knowledge.
Which opens the door for ordinary justice to investigate those close to the president, such as his former campaign manager and current director of the state oil company (Ecopetrol), Ricardo Roa, and that the Commission on Accusations of the House of Representatives and the National Electoral Council are in charge of evaluating the affirmations against the president.
What happened to my son is terrible and very unfortunate for me.
Hopefully one day I can talk to him and forgive us.
As I said before, as president I will not put pressure on justice in your case, the judicial officials who intervene in your process will be respected by me.
The…— Gustavo Petro (@petrogustavo) August 5, 2023
Message from President Petro in his X account. This was published after the interview revealed in Semana magazine.
Allegations of “unreported resources”
Nicolás Petro reached a collaboration agreement with the Colombian Prosecutor’s Office, which has been brought to light in different hearings. Affirmations that must be proven in this judicial process.
The first prosecutor delegated to the Superior Court of Bogotá, Mario Burgos, said this Friday in a judicial hearing that Petro Burgos confessed that part of the money received illegally from a drug trafficker and from businessmen he used for his own benefit and another went to Gustavo Petro’s presidential campaign in 2022.
Nicholas Petro He has repeatedly stated that his father was unaware of the entry of illegal or unreported resourcesas he assured the Colombian media ‘Week’ this Saturday:
“My father or the campaign manager, Ricardo Roa, knew about the money that Daysuris (his ex-partner) and I received from Santander Lopesierra and Gabriel Hilsaca. Obviously, they did not know that part of those contributions I used for the campaign. It is important to make that clarification, but there are other circumstances,” he said in an interview.
In dialogue with the magazine, he was also asked if the president knew of other illegal money such as “businessman Euclides Torres.” To which Petro Burgos replied that he could not comment on it due to “a negotiation process with the Prosecutor’s Office.” And he added: “There are many facts, many people, many situations that are confidential.”
‘Hot’ money would have reached the campaign
In the interview published by the Colombian weekly, he reveals that he would have received economic resources from various businessmen and a prisoner for drug trafficking in the United States. Among them of the mentioned Euclides Torresa Colombian businessman, who according to the Colombian media ‘La Silla Vacía’, has been a public contractor and has tenders on energy issues for public lighting in various municipalities in Colombia.
Torres, who manages a profile away from the media and social networks, was also mentioned by the former Colombian ambassador to Venezuela and investigated by the Supreme Court, Armando Benedettiwho revealed, even without public evidence, in the same weekly, that Euclides Torres would have entered the campaign 15 billion Colombian pesos (3.6 million dollars, approximately).
I issue this statement as President of the Commission on Accusations with the purpose of informing the public about the procedure for the investigation of the President of the Republic. pic.twitter.com/ceRlJucluM
— Wadith Manzur Imbet (@wmanzur) August 4, 2023
Message from the President of the Commission of Accusations of the Lower House of Colombia. This body is in charge of investigating the president.
Another name that came up in the statements to the Prosecutor’s Office and in the interview with Semana is Alfonso del Cristo ‘The Turk’ Hilsaca Elajdue. This businessman, who according to ‘the empty chair‘ It is also a state contractor that has been involved in the financing of various political campaigns and judicial troubles, it would have delivered 400 million pesos (about 100 thousand dollars, approximately) according to chat that the ex-wife of Nicolás Petro gave to ‘Semana’.
An additional name emerged this week in the hearings, that of the ‘Marlboro Man’ or Samuel Santander Lopesierra, a former politician who, according to ‘Week‘ was extradited in the United States after being found guilty of sending shipments of hundreds of kilos of cocaine to its territory. In 2021, he regained his freedom and returned to Colombia. In Nicolás Petro’s version, he would have given him close to 600 million Colombian pesos.
Whats Next?
For his part, the Colombian president announced that he will be represented by the lawyer and co-judge of the Criminal Cassation Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice, Mauricio Pava Lugo.
The Committee on Impeachments of the House of Representatives announced the initiation of an investigation. However, he will have to face a judicial process that could impact his political project ahead of the regional elections next October. On the other hand, the newspaper ‘El Tiempo’ it states that the Prosecutor’s Office will begin to summon 16 people involved in the alleged concealment of the money.
The ex-partner was arrested on Saturday, July 29, and three days later the Prosecutor’s Office charged the president’s son with the crimes of money laundering and illicit enrichment of a public servant, and Vásquez with money laundering and violation of personal data.
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