2023-07-29 16:24:29
Colombian President Gustavo Petro announced on Saturday the arrest of his eldest son Nicolas Petro, accused of money laundering and illegal enrichment, in the context of a scandal linked to the presidential campaign.
The first leftist president in Colombia wrote on Twitter, renamed X, that the police had arrested his son and his ex-wife, Days Vasquez. In March, the latter accused her former partner of having received large sums of money from drug traffickers and smugglers in 2022 for the victorious presidential campaign of Gustavo Petro but that he had used them to lead a life. luxurious in the city of Barranquilla (north).
“I wish my son good luck and strength,” said Gustavo Petro on X. “May these events forge his character and that he can reflect on his own mistakes,” he added. “As a person and a father, so much self-destruction hurts me a lot.”
The prosecution indicated for its part that Nicolas Petro had been arrested “for the offenses of laundering of assets and illegal enrichment” and his ex-wife for “laundering of assets and violation of personal data”. The Colombian president denies having received money from drug trafficking groups and has himself called for an investigation to be opened against his son.
Nicolás Petro was a member of the “Historical Pact”, the left-wing alliance that brought his father to power. The media had published statements of Nicolas Petro’s accounts, showing incomes well above those of a parliamentarian’s salary.
Days Vásquez claimed in an interview that her ex-husband had received the equivalent of approximately $124,000 from a former drug trafficker, Samuel Santander Lopesierra. Known by the pseudonym “The Marlboro Man”, Mr. Santander Lopesierra served 18 years in prison in the United States for drug trafficking.
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