Nicolás Petro, son of Gustavo Petro, was captured in Colombia for money laundering and illicit enrichment.
The Colombian president spoke on Twitter, expressing disappointment at the situation.
“My son Nicolás and his ex-wife Days have been captured by the prosecution. As a person and a father, so much self-destruction hurts me a lot and the fact that one of my children goes to jail,” Petro wrote on Twitter, now X.
“I wish my son luck and strength. May these events forge his character and may he reflect on his own mistakes,” he added.
Vásquez accused her ex-husband in March of having ties to drug traffickers and smugglers, as well as receiving large sums of money supposedly intended for the presidential campaign of the current head of state, but which he actually used to lead a luxurious life in the city of Barranquilla (north).
The prosecutor’s office reported the arrest of the president’s son “for the crimes of money laundering and illicit enrichment” and his ex-partner for “money laundering and violation of personal data.”
“Those captured will be placed at the disposal of a criminal judge (…) who will be asked to give legality to the procedures for search, capture and seizure of material evidence,” the investigative entity added in a statement.
Since that scandal broke out, which shakes the first leftist government in Colombia, Petro denies the existence of mafia money in his presidential race accounts. He himself asked to open an investigation against his son.
Nicolás was a deputy for the president’s political movement, the Historical Pact, in the department of Atlántico (north). The media published his bank statements, much higher than the salary of the person who holds that position.
In an interview, Vásquez claimed that former drug trafficker and former smuggler Samuel Santander Lopesierra gave his former partner the equivalent of about $124,000.
Known by the alias “The Marlboro Man,” Santander Lopesierra served 18 years in prison in the United States for drug trafficking.