“What happened to my son is terrible and very unfortunate for me,” the president wrote on the X social network, adding that he found out about the situation during “a meeting I had with Nicolás’s ex-wife in my office, just a few months ago when I asked for my son to be investigated.”
Petro stressed that he will not put pressure on the justice system and will respect judicial officials who intervene in the process, in a case that has shaken politics in the Andean nation.
On his first day of release after being detained for a week for a process in which the Prosecutor’s Office accuses him of money laundering and illicit enrichment and his ex-wife Daysuri Vásquez of money laundering and data breach, Nicolás Petro explained in an interview with the Colombian magazine Semana the reasons why she decided to collaborate with justice, mentioning her family since she wants to be at the birth of her son.
“I want to clarify something: neither my father nor the campaign manager, Ricardo Roa, knew about the money Daysuris 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 this clarification, but there are other circumstances, ”said Nicolás Petro, without specifying them immediately because, according to him, the negotiation with the Prosecutor’s Office to provide evidence and information prevents him from doing so.
Lopesierra was convicted and extradited to the United States for drug trafficking, while Hilsaca is the son of Alfonso the “Turk” Hilsaca, prosecuted for murder and criminal conspiracy.
“There are many facts, people, many situations that are reserved,” he insisted.
Nicolás Petro also affirmed that the amount received from Lopesierra and Hilsaca was about “500 or 600 million pesos (around 144,920 dollars)”, less than what had been disclosed in previous days. He clarified that he did not know, however, an exact number of the total amount of alleged illicit money that he could enter into his father’s campaign.
The president’s eldest son affirmed that among the revelations that he will make to the Prosecutor’s Office, in the framework of the negotiation they are engaging in, the names of “very important” people, such as ministers, politicians who could be involved in acts not allowed in the election campaign.
He assured that he will dedicate himself to remembering, organizing information and collecting data that he can deliver to the Public Ministry.
Asked if he believes that his father should remain in power, Nicolás Petro pointed out that “you also have to see the degree of responsibilities.”
In his extensive statements, Petro Jr. mentions several names that he identifies as victims, such as his cousin Camilo Burgos and Germán Londoño. In the same terms, he referred to Máximo Noriega, a political leader and former candidate for the governorship of Atlántico; “He has been a victim in all of this,” he said.
Nicolás Petro said he was sorry. “All people make mistakes, when the time comes to pay for them, to assume it, obviously one regrets it,” he reflected and denied having thought of leaving the country at any time.
Regarding his personal situation and his relationship with his father, Nicolás said that he was abandoned by him at the moment when he needed him the most. He stated that his mother, his family and friends turned their backs on him and “until today I realized that they wanted to use me.”
He revealed that their relationship had not been going well for a long time. “It hurts me because regardless of all the mistakes I made… a father should always be there.”
“I am not going to immolate myself for my father or for anyone. Only for my son, ”she stated in the interview with Semana. He said that it is his motivation and that he hopes he does not make the mistakes that his father made with him.
In what seemed like an immediate reaction to his son’s harsh remarks, President Petro wrote: “I hope one day I can talk to him and forgive us.”
The president said that he hopes that his grandson, about to be born, can meet his father in freedom, and said that he met Nicolás behind bars in a prison when he was arrested for illegally carrying weapons as part of the armed group M19.
“Even in the most terrible thing, you learn that all my sons and daughters, including Nicolás and myself, can with this harsh experience be better human beings,” said the president.
The case that has shaken Colombia and the Petro government dates back to March when his ex-daughter-in-law revealed to Semana that her ex-husband had received money of dubious origin, which he used for his personal purposes.
Petro, who appointed the lawyer Mauricio Pava Lugo, auxiliary judge of the Supreme Court of Justice, as his legal representative for the investigations that arise from the case, said on Friday that he will continue with his presidential agenda. Meanwhile, Nicolás Petro and his ex-wife will not be able to leave the country or participate in political activities.
It is estimated that the Prosecutor’s Office could be announcing new implicates in the coming days in accordance with the information provided by the president’s son.
FOUNTAIN: Associated Press
