Colombia: Nicolás Petro confesses that his father's election campaign was financed with drug money

Nicolás Petro, the eldest son of Colombian President Gustavo Petro, said under oath that his father's presidential campaign received money from drug trafficking.

The prosecutor in the case, Mario Burgos, was the one who revealed some of the statements made by the president's son in court. This Thursday, Burgos appeared before the court and spoke about issues of national concern as part of a collaboration agreement for the accusation he faces for money laundering.

Petro "provided relevant information that the Prosecutor's Office was unaware of," he said, adding that one of the most important points was about the financing of Gustavo Petro's presidential campaign.

According to Burgos, the president's son said that the current president's campaign received large sums of money that exceeded the minimum ceilings allowed by law, but that specific amounts were not reported to the electoral authorities.

It also indicated that Nicolás Petro admitted that he received money from Samuel Santander Lopesierra, a drug trafficker known as "the Marlboro man," and that part of this money "was used by Nicolás Petro himself and his (then) wife for their personal benefit and to increase their patrimony in an unjustified manner and thus launder the assets resulting from that patrimonial increase. Another part of that money was invested in the 2022 presidential campaign."

The president's son pledged to provide the necessary documentation (audios, chats and even videos) to the authorities to prove that what he says is true.