2023-08-01 20:34:41
“Today the investigation formally begins.” The 74th criminal court of Bogotá accused this Tuesday Nicholas Petro Burgosson of President Gustavo Petro, 37, for the crimes of money laundering and illicit enrichment, aggravated by his status as a public official. Prosecutor Mario Andrés Burgos asked for up to 14 years but offered a reduction of up to 50% of the sentence if they took responsibility for the accusations and returned the money that has been the subject of the open case. His ex-wife Day Vásquez has been the subject of the same accusation with the addition of the crime of having violated personal data. Neither of them accepted the prosecution’s offer. The decision of the capital court has a high political impact when there are only a few days left before the first year of the administration of the first left-wing government of this country is completed, and at a time when more than half of the population disapproves of what was done by the former guerrilla at the Nariño Palace.
At the hearing, prosecutor Burgos substantiated the charges and presented evidence. The session was so impressive that the arrival in the capital of the ELN guerrilla delegation to finalize the details of the ceasefire, within the framework of the Government’s ambitious “total peace” plan, and the sanction of the law of tuition free in the university.
“Today a process against him begins,” Burgos told both of them. “The prosecution designates them as defendants by virtue of the information legally obtained. It is allowed to infer that are the probable perpetrators of a criminal action“. The accusing party did not hesitate to affirm that Petro Burgos increased his wealth “disproportionately” and “unjustified”. The prosecutor reminded the son of the president that, at that time, he only had a single economic income as a departmental legislator from the Atlantic region. “You do not count, and it was demonstrated, that you had no other economic activity than will generate income. In his income tax returns, he stated that he had only earnings derived from his work.” He had not reported donations either. The money, received in cash, “has not been the result of their work”. By virtue of this economic accumulation “with appearances of legality”, Burgos reproached him, “he behaved like a careeristI have to tell you. Society had placed trust in you and you let them down.
The scandal broke out last March with the ex-wife’s statements to the magazine Week. Vásquez assured that her ex-husband had received $125,000 from ex-narco Samuel Santander Lopesierra, known as the “Marlboro Man.” He has also been linked to Alfonso “el turco” Hilsaca, a man who has been prosecuted for murder. That money, apparently requested for the father’s electoral campaign, remained in the hands of his son and was used for personal purposes. “Everything has been behind the father’s back, I do have to clarify that,” Vásquez pointed out. And he also revealed that her desire to talk about her had the mark of spite: she had been deceived with another. The ex-wife denounced threats against her and requested the protection of the prosecution. From that moment on, a fence began to be drawn around Petro Burgos.
repercussions
The political costs of the process against the president’s son are beginning to be felt. The Colombia Humana party no longer supports Máximo Noriega, who was seeking to compete for the governorship of the Atlántico department and who had the blessing of Petro Burgos.
Maria Jose Pizarro, Senator of the Historical Pact, in power, highlighted, for her part, the way in which Gustavo Petro faced what happens in court. “That must be raised forcefully. The message is sent that in this Government no one is above the law not even the president’s son.”
Gabriel Cifuentes, former secretary of the NGO Transparencia and columnist, pointed out that the accusation of Nicolás Petro carries a “storm cloud” to the government because it becomes “an artillery for the opposition”. The president has complied with respect for the independence of powers and, in this way, “would be knocking down the myths of the opposition that we are at the gates of a Castrochavista regime”.
Far-right senator María Fernanda Cabal endorsed the denunciation of the Madrid Forum that brings together, under the leadership of Vox, to that ideological space, of supposed pressure from the Latin American progressive governments to “delegitimize” the process against the president’s son.
The scandal has edges that seem to escape the judicial protocol itself. “Is it okay to capture someone to charge him with a crime? Wouldn’t it be enough to send him a summons for him to appear at that imputation proceeding?” asked Yesid Reyes Alvarado, a columnist for the Bogota newspaper The viewer.
The lawyer’s opinion
Juan Trujillo, lawyer for the offspring of the head of state, in turn denounced “serious irregularities” in the arrest of his client, last Saturday, marked by the “disproportionality” of the Prosecutor’s Office He gave as an example that Petro Burgos was filmed naked with his current wife, Laura Ojeda, who is pregnant. “They should have investigated deeply and found serious evidence that led to a capture that at first seems exaggerated.”
The lawyer considered that, beyond the equidistance that the president has taken from the situation, “it is the son” and what happens “it will take away for more intellectual maturity or emotional for a long time”. The legal case will become “a battle horse for many people”.
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