BOGOTA — The eldest son of the leftist president of Colombia, Gustavo Petrowas called to trial this Thursday by the Prosecutor’s Office that accuses him of money laundering for the possible entry of drug trafficking money into his father’s campaign.
“Mr. Nicolás Fernando Petro Burgos is called to trial,” said prosecutor Mario Burgos during an accusation hearing before a judge in the city of Barranquilla (north), where the former assemblyman who was part of the presidential campaign in 2022 resides. his father’s.
The Prosecutor’s Office is confident that it has all the evidence to request a conviction against Nicolás Petro Burgos, for the crimes of illicit enrichment and money laundering, Semana Magazine reports.
“The president’s son had been captured on July 29, he accepted charges, he began a negotiation with the Prosecutor’s Office, he confessed during interrogation. After a visit from his father, President Gustavo Petro, the negotiation broke down and Nicolás began to break his commitment already free. Today, 6 months later, the Prosecutor’s Office begins the accusation against him for illicit enrichment and money laundering,” published Vicky Dávila, director of Semana Magazine, the media that uncovered the case after the complaint by the ex-wife of Nicolás Petro, Daysuris Vásquez.
The second specialized criminal judge of Barranquilla decided to finalize the process against Nicolás Petro for the ‘narcopayments’ case, after the defense of the president’s eldest son requested annulment of the case.
Money from drug trafficking
The charges presented by the prosecution arise from the testimony of Nicolás Petro’s ex-wife, Daysuris Vásquez, who after an infidelity accused him of receiving large sums of cash from Samuel Santander Lopesierra, convicted of drug trafficking in the United States.
Vásquez accused the president’s son, captured last July, of allegedly “acquiring, investing, hiding, covering up and giving the appearance of legality” to money obtained irregularly, in addition to “unjustifiably increasing” his “economic assets.”
According to the Prosecutor’s Office, Samuel Santander Lopesierra gave Nicolás Petro about 400 million pesos (about $102,000), as did Alfonso “the Turk” Hilsaca, a businessman accused in the past by the investigating body of financing paramilitary groups and planning homicides.
A part of money would have entered the 2022 presidential campaign and the rest was used by Nicolás Petro to give himself a life of luxury, according to the accusation. The president denies having used that money to come to power.
“Clear and precise facts”
The votes from the Caribbean region – where Nicolás Petro has made his political career – were decisive for the victory of Gustavo Petro, who became the first leftist president of Colombia in August 2022.
At this Thursday’s hearing, Nicolás Petro’s defense requested that the entire process against him be annulled, arguing the prosecutor’s lack of clarity in presenting the facts for which he is accused.
“The facts of the accusation were clear and precise and no guarantee was affected,” said the judge in the case, Hugo Carbonó, when rejecting the defense lawyer’s request.
Nicolás Petro was captured in July 2023 while he was at his home with his new partner in a media operation.
Initially, the president’s son said he was open and collaborated with the investigating body, but then he changed lawyers and decided to reject the charges. He will now defend himself in court.
On parole since the beginning of August, Nicolás has denied that his father had knowledge about the income of these monies to the campaign.
Judges and congressmen
The president does not deny the accusations against his son and distanced himself from Nicolás by ensuring that he would never be complicit in those crimes.
According to the prosecution, in 2022 Nicolás Petro bought several luxury goods with cash, including a Mercedes-Benz vehicle worth about $50,000; expenses that exceeded the salary he earned as a deputy at that time.
In a map of those involved presented by the investigating entity, Gustavo Petro does not appear, but his wife and Nicolás’ stepmother, Verónica Alcocer, does. The president has not commented after this Thursday’s decision.
For these same events Gustavo Petro is investigated by Congress, where he does not have a majority. Eventually the Legislature could impeach him and remove him, although the process so far is in the preliminary phase.
Source: With information from AFP
