Colombian police on Saturday arrested the president’s son as part of a high-profile money laundering probe into funds he allegedly collected from convicted drug traffickers during last year’s presidential campaign.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro, a former rebel who rose through the country’s political ranks as an anti-corruption crusader, said he would not interfere with the investigation.
“As an individual and father, it pains me to see so much self-destruction and one of my sons going to jail,” Petro wrote in an early morning message on X, formerly known as Twitter. “As president of the republic, I’ve assured the chief prosecutor’s office that it will have all of the guarantees so it can proceed according to the law.”
Photo: Asamblea del Atlantico / handout via Reuters
The arrest of Nicolas Petro, 37, is a major blow to the government, which has been buffeted by conservative attacks from day one, while it has also struggled to maintain bipartisan support for Colombia in the US, a longtime ally in the war on drugs and fight against illegal armed groups.
The investigation stems from declarations made by Nicolas Petro’s ex-wife, Daysuris del Carmen Vasquez, to the magazine Semana earlier this year.
In the extended interview, Vasquez said she was present at meetings when her husband arranged a donation of more than 600 million pesos (US$153,336) from a politician once convicted in Washington of drug trafficking and who was seeking the Petro campaign’s support to resume his political career.
She said that Gustavo Petro was unaware of his son’s dealings and the money he collected in his campaign’s name was kept inside a safe inside the couple’s home in the coastal city of Barranquilla.
Nicolas Petro has denied his ex-wife’s claims as unfounded.
The chief prosecutor’s office said in a statement that Nicolas Petro and his ex-wife were taken into custody on orders of a court in Bogota at about 6am on Saturday. It said that once brought before a judge, prosecutors would seek their provisional detention as it investigates the two for money laundering.
“I wish my son luck and strength,” Gustavo Petro wrote. “May these events build his character and may he reflect on his mistakes.”
Nicolas Petro was born in the 1980s while his father was in the Marxist M-19 urban guerrilla insurgency, one of several armed groups fighting the lock on power by traditional political parties.
Gustavo Petro recently said he was absent from his son’s life due to the civil war, unlike with his five younger children raised after a peace accord with the M-19 movement was signed in 1990.
Nicolas Petro was a lawmaker for his father’s party in the northern Atlantic department. News outlets published bank records of his showing he had far more assets than his salary from congress justified.
Additional reporting by AFP
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