Colombian President Gustavo Petro said on Saturday that his son Nicolas has been arrested on money laundering and illegal enrichment allegations in connection with Petro’s election campaign.
Colombia’s first Marxist president announced the arrest of his son and his son’s ex-wife Daysuris Vasquez on Twitter, which has been relaunched as X.
Vasquez claimed in March that Nicolas Petro received enormous sums of money from drug traffickers and smugglers in 2022 for his father’s eventual successful presidential campaign, but instead used the money to live in luxury in the northern city of Barranquilla.
“I wish my son luck and strength”, Petro wrote. “May these events build his character and may he reflect on his mistakes.”
“As a person and father, it hurts to see so much self-destruction”, he continued.
Prosecutors confirmed the younger Petro’s detention on charges of money laundering and unlawful gain. Vasquez was charged with the first offense as well.
President Petro has denied receiving money from the country’s prominent cocaine traffickers since the story erupted. He requested that his son be probed.
Nicolas Petro was a legislator in the Northern Atlantic department for his father’s party. His bank records were revealed by news outlets, revealing that he had significantly more money than his congressional salary.
Vasquez stated in an interview that her ex-husband received $124,000 from a former drug trafficker named Samuel Santander Lopesierra.
Santander Lopesierra was imprisoned in the United States for 18 years for cocaine trafficking.
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