Bogota. One communication by the left-wing President Gustavo Petro on the allegations of corruption against his son Nicolás and his brother Juan Fernando made waves in the Colombian public. In it, the head of government calls on the attorney general to initiate “all necessary investigations” against his two family members.
The reason for this is “rumours” that the relatives named would have offered delinquents legal benefits within the framework of “total peace” in return for payment of money. “My government will not give criminals any benefits in exchange for bribes,” Petro said in the communiqué.
The government is about to submit a bill to Congress that would incentivize powerful criminal structures to cooperate with the judiciary. “We are in the process of creating the legal mechanisms to ensure that these illegal groups are brought to justice and the victims are compensated,” Petro said in his statement. The aim is to end the violence nationwide.
“My commitment to Colombia and the people of Colombia is to create peace, and anyone who wants to disrupt that goal or benefit personally from it has no place in the government, even if they are members of my family,” the head of government assured further. He hopes that his son and brother are innocent, but will respect the decisions of the judiciary.
An interview conducted shortly afterwards by the magazine Week with Nicolás Petro’s ex-wife, Day Vásquez, made the allegations public. In it, she accused her ex-husband and council member of the Atlántic Department of 2022, one billion pesos (approx. 200,000 euros) from two dubious politicians and entrepreneurs collects to have.
The money was intended to support Gustavo Petro’s presidential campaign. However, Nicolás is said to have kept the money to buy a house for 1.6 billion pesos (about 320,000 euros), according to Vásquez. Specifically, Nicolás is said to have received 600 million pesos from Congressman Samuel Santander Lopesierra, who was convicted of drug trafficking, and 400 million pesos from the son of alleged paramilitary supporter Alfonso Hilsaca.
Vásquez asserted that these deals were arranged behind Gustavo Petro’s back. Only two weeks ago she told the president everything, who was disappointed. He would not allow his son to illicitly enrich himself like the children of other ex-presidents, he said emphatically.
The day after the interview, the Attorney General’s Office launched an investigation into Nicolás Petro initiated. Against the President’s brother, Juan Fernando Petro, has been in action since January determined.
Attorney General Francisco Barbosa, a longtime Freund of right-wing ex-President Iván Duque and critic of the government’s “total peace” project, has accused Gustavo Petro’s brother and High Commissioner for Peace Danilo Rueda of illegal agreements with imprisoned drug dealers accused.
According to right-wing magazine Semana, Petro and Rueda worked with a network of lawyers that offered prison inmates positions as “peace brokers” in the “total peace” project for money. Such posts allow inmates to get out of prison on parole.
Laut John Ferdinand Peter used Drug dealers and lawyers used his name without his authorization.
Auch Wheel argues the allegations. The government’s move would be “exploited by unscrupulous people and some lawyers, accustomed to dealing in political and legal favors, who are now trying to profit from the confusion and deception,” he lamented.
“I would never set a price for my work for peace and I would never betray the principles of integrity and altruism that I inherited from tireless fighters like Eduardo Umaña, Josué Giraldo, Yolanda Cerón and father Javier Giraldo,” Rueda said .
For his part, President Petro stressed in his communiqué that only Rueda “has the government’s permission to contact illegal organizations” to seek peace talks.
Opinion leaders in Colombia fear that the current scandals surrounding the president’s son and brother will do great damage to the “total peace” project dish.