In the recordings, the former ambassador of the country in Venezuela, Armando Benedetti, who had an active participation in Petro’s presidential campaign, affirms that he held “one hundred meetings” in favor of the then candidate Petro and that he “obtained” four million dollars for his candidacy for the presidency of Colombia.
Both Congress and the electoral authority are in charge of making inquiries as to whether these contributions were duly reported or complied with the regulations on maximum amounts.
In the same audios revealed by Semana Magazine, Benedetti rebuked Petro’s former chief of staff, Laura Sarabia – with whom she is in a dispute over alleged illegal wiretapping that cost them both their jobs – for the bad relationship and hints that she can do disclosures that have consequences for the government.
“If you want them to threaten you, I go out and tell everything I know, which is enough to end the world, with yours and with mine,” Benedetti told Sarabia in the audios known on Sunday night. .
On Monday, the initiative to investigate the president and the origin of his campaign funds reached the Legislature, with a view to proposing a political trial against him. Three complaints were filed before the Accusation Commission, which will be in charge of investigating the issue and to which several political sectors asked for speed in the process on Tuesday.
The president of the House of Representatives, David Racero, from the same political current as Petro, explained the procedure that must be carried out in the Congressional Accusation Commission.
“The first thing is to ask the president of the Accusation Commission to make the due distribution of the process,” Racero asked. The official congressman refers to the appointment of investigator legislators.
Senator for the Centro Democrático Party Miguel Uribe Turbay, an opponent of the government and one of those who denounced Petro, assured that the known audios would show “crimes related to illegal financing and vote buying.”
David Luna, a senator from the Radical Change Party, also an opponent of the Petro government, asked the control entities to “investigate in depth the possible acts of corruption that occurred in the campaign of today’s President” and added that “if the testimonies revealed are true, the consequences must be forceful.”
In accordance with current regulations, the investigating legislators must carry out inquiries and bring their conclusions to the Accusation Commission, which must vote and decide whether or not to accuse him before the plenary session of the House of Representatives.
If progress is made, the process could reach the Senate. In the worst case, it could declare the “undignity” of the president, suspend him from his position and send him to the Supreme Court of Justice to continue the investigation.
President Petro, the first left-wing leader in Colombian history, was elected in June last year with 11.7 million votes, barely 700,000 more than his rival, the former mayor of the Colombian city of Bucaramanga, engineer Rodolfo Hernández.
FUENTE: Associated Press
