It was August 7, 2022 when the new president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, took office. A radical turn for the Latin American country before the assumption for the first time of a left-wing government. Almost a year later, the former guerrilla fighter arrives at his first anniversary with worn-out popularity and with a scandal starring his own son splashing him fully.
Nicolás Petro Burgos, who is also a deputy of the Assembly of the Department of the Atlantic, was arrested last weekend as part of an investigation by the Prosecutor’s Office that accused him of illicit enrichment and money laundering. His ex-wife Daysiris Vásquez would also be involved. Since then, Colombia remained expectant before the next steps of justice. On Tuesday, the judge’s accusation arrived at a public hearing held in Bogotá. The point is that the president’s eldest son would have received money from drug trafficker Samuel Santander Lopesierra, the Marlboro Man, and from Alfonso Hilsaca, the Turk, who in the past was linked to paramilitaries.
The biggest blow for President Petro and, therefore, for Colombia came on Thursday, when Petro Burgos revealed that allegedly illicit money entered his father’s electoral campaign. “Actually, some of said money entered [Nicolás Petro’s] coffers and others went to the 2022 presidential campaign in which our current president, Dr. Gustavo Petro Urrego, was elected,” the first prosecutor delegated before the hearing said. the Superior Court of Bogotá, Mario Burgos, according to Efe.
Adding fuel to the fire was the confession revealed by the Vásquez Prosecutor’s Office, who in an audio taken from a phone call says: “Here he is stealing, I am stealing and we are all stealing, in case he wants to accuse me of being a thief.” . This forceful phrase corresponds to a conversation with Máximo Noriega, publishes Semana – the same Colombian magazine that published in March the audios of Vásquez that triggered the investigation. Noriega is a friend of Petro Jr. and until recently a candidate for Governor of the Atlantic.
Faced with such revelations, the Colombian president published a statement on Twitter this Friday in which he shows his “pain” for the “alleged irregularities.” To which he added that he trusted justice and that “nothing and no one can stop the fight of a lifetime against all forms of corruption, and the Government will continue its task and commitment for a better Colombia without distractions.”
In said communiqué he points out: “I will resolutely continue with the presidential agenda.” However, Semana magazine pointed out that he had canceled a trip scheduled for yesterday to Palmar de Varela for a meeting with businessmen.
Prior to said announcement on the social network, on Thursday he pointed out that they are trying to overthrow his Executive and that he will remain in charge until 2026. He also said about the illicit financing and about those who affirm that he knew it: “If that were true , this president had to leave today, because I am not [Álvaro] Uribe, I am not [Juan Manuel] Santos, I am not [Iván] Duque, I am not one of those who have passed behind, I come from a different way of understanding the things, I’m not going to criticize, but we come from a different sensibility”.
The Colombian political class did not take long to speak out in the face of such a scandal. Among them, one of those mentioned by Petro: former president Álvaro Uribe, who alluded to a case for which he was investigated and said on Twitter: “I must remember that the Supreme Court, the magistrates who deprived me of my freedom, filed the unfair process against me for the alleged Ñeñe Politics. They carried out countless tests. They can review the financing of all my campaigns.” Former presidential candidate Sergio Fajardo described Petro Jr.’s testimony as a “bomb”, which “shakes the foundations of democracy.”
While Colombia, whose society was already polarized by the peace process with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), assimilates all the statements and waits for judicial decisions, the calls for a national march on the next 16 have already started. of August. In the various appeals, President Petro’s resignation or trial is requested. It is not the first time that a part of Colombians has demonstrated against the Colombian president, they already took to the streets on June 20 to protest against some reforms proposed in Congress. For his part, the president of the Investigation and Accusation Commission – the only one that can initiate an impeachment process -, Wadith Manzur, said this Friday that Congress is already investigating Petro for irregularities, reported Efe.
Corruption is one of the persistent ills of Latin America, which was almost entirely dotted by the Odebrecht case.
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