Colombian President Gustavo Petro was unaware that money from a former drug lord financed his campaign, his son Nicolás said in statements published yesterday by the Colombian magazine Semana, in which he admitted that he is estranged from his father.
“Neither my father nor the campaign manager, Ricardo Roa, knew about the money Daysuris (Vásquez, his ex-wife) and I received from Santander Lopesierra and Gabriel Hilsaca,” said the 37-year-old politician, whom a judge granted parole on Friday after being arrested for money laundering and illicit enrichment.
“You have to maintain good conduct, you will have to appear at all calls that are made on behalf of the process. You will be prohibited from leaving Colombia. You are also prohibited from participating in any political rally,” the judge told the president’s son.
Petro, in turn, denied yesterday that his electoral campaign has been financed by drug trafficking. “The campaign did not receive any money of an illegal nature and I found out about what happened from a meeting I had with Nicolás’s ex-wife in my office just a few months ago, when I asked that my son be investigated,” the ruler said through X , formerly Twitter.
In the middle of a judicial process, Nicolás, who was arrested a week ago, revealed that he contributed to Petro’s campaign part of the 400 million pesos (about 102 thousand dollars) that Samuel Santander Lopesierra, extradited to the United States for drug trafficking in 2003 and free since 2021, I gave him last year.
A son of Alfonso “el Turco” Hilsaca, a businessman accused in the past by the prosecution of financing paramilitary groups and planning homicides, also gave money to Nicolás, according to Mario Burgos, prosecutor in the case that makes the Colombian government tremble.
The president and Roa “did not know that part of those contributions I used for the campaign. It is important to make that clarification, but there are other circumstances,” added Nicolás, whose trial for money laundering and illicit enrichment will continue.
Respect for Justice. “As I said before, as president I will not pressure the Justice in his case, the judicial officials who intervene in his process will be respected by me,” said the Colombian president yesterday.
In a recent event with peasants in Sincelejo (Sucre, north), Petro denied alleged versions that indicate that he knew of these movements. “If that were true, this president would have to leave today,” added the first left-wing president of Colombia and who will celebrate his first year in government tomorrow
Petro pointed out that “what will never happen is that it is affirmed that the current president of the republic has even suggested or become an accomplice that one of his sons or daughters commits crimes, because that has not happened.”
Nicolás was involved in the scandal after his ex-wife accused him of receiving large sums of cash to give himself a life of luxury in the city of Barranquilla (north), where he was arrested. The woman made the accusation after an infidelity and she was also arrested for money laundering and violation of personal data. She will continue to be linked to the process, but she will defend herself in freedom.
Nicolás, who is expecting a child with another woman, stated in the interview with Semana that “the most painful thing” has been that people like his father have “totally turned their backs” on him.
“There is my dad, family, friends, people who until today I realized wanted to use me. The moment this happened and they saw that I was no longer useful to them, they started to turn their backs on me,” said Nicolás, who was instrumental in Petro’s aspirations in the Caribbean coast region, historically reluctant to the left. “The situation with my dad has not been good for several months,” he acknowledged.
Petro pointed out yesterday that what happened to his son is “terrible and very unfortunate. Hopefully one day I can talk to him and forgive us.”
“I met Nicolás at the bars of my prison. Even in the most terrible things, one learns that all my sons and daughters, including Nicolás and myself, can with this harsh experience be better human beings,” said the former M-19 guerrilla.