Colombian leader's son says drug money entered father's campaign

Petro, at age 37 the eldest of the leftist president's children, was arrested Saturday and denied the charges in a hearing Wednesday.

Nicolas Petro, son of Colombian President Gustavo Petro (L), and his ex-wife Daysuris Vasque. 

BOGOTA: Nicolas Petro, son of Colombian President Gustavo Petro, told prosecutors that money from a drug cartel filtered into the campaign of his father last year, a confession aimed at mitigating his own exposure to money-laundering charges.

Nicolas Petro “received large sums of money from Mr. Samuel Santander Lopesierra, known as The Marlboro Man,” prosecutor Mario Burgos said during a hearing Thursday.

“Some of the money was used by Mr. Nicolas Fernando Petro himself… and the other part went into the 2022 presidential campaign,” Burgos said.

Petro, at age 37 the eldest of the leftist president’s children, was arrested Saturday and denied the charges in a hearing Wednesday.

But he changed his tune a day later when he announced his aim “to initiate a process of collaboration.”

“I will refer to new facts and situations that will help justice,” Nicolas Petro said.

Local press reports said the younger Petro learned of new evidence held by prosecutors, and that Burgos offered to reduce his potential time in prison by half if he collaborated.

President Petro said Saturday he recognized the independence of the judiciary in charging his son, indicating Nicolas Petro would have to face the consequences.

Speaking on Thursday to poor farmers in Sucre department in the north, Petro denied that he had been in league with his son to bring dirty money to his campaign.

“What will never happen… is that it is said that the current president… has even suggested or become an accomplice of one of his sons or daughters to commit a crime, because that has not happened,” he said. “If that were true, this president would have to leave today.”

The charges against the younger Petro are for “acquiring, investing… covering up and giving the appearance of legality” to money obtained irregularly, in addition to seeing an unjustified increase in his net worth.

After Nicolas Petro had an alleged affair, his ex-wife, Daysuris Vasquez, accused him of siphoning off money intended for his father’s 2022 campaign, using it to live the high life in Barranquilla, a northern port.

The younger Petro was a legislator from the surrounding Atlantico department, and helped his father gain support in the Caribbean region, historically opposed to leftist politicians.

Burgos said Nicolas Petro received some 400 million pesos (about US$102,000) from Lopesierra, a former Colombian senator who later served a US prison term for cocaine trafficking.

Lopesierra got the moniker The Marlboro Man for importing cigarettes, some of it said to be contraband, through Colombia’s remote La Guajira Peninsula on the Caribbean coast.

In 2006, a US jury convicted him of smuggling two tons of cocaine into the country, and laundering millions of dollars. He was sentenced to a 25-year prison term, but went free after 18 years.

Burgos said Nicolas Petro may have received a similar quantity of money from Alfonso “The Turk” Hilsaca, a businessman who has been implicated in financing right-wing paramilitary groups.