Colombian President Gustavo Petro says son was arrested on money laundering charges

Colombian President Gustavo Petro on Saturday made a shocking revelation saying that his son Nicolas was arrested on charges of money laundering and illegal enrichment in connection to a scandal related to Petro's election campaign.

He took to Twitter, rebranded as X, and wrote that the police had arrested his son and the son's ex-wife Daysuris Vasquez.

In the month of March, Vasquez claimed that Nicolas Petro had received thousands of dollars from drug traffickers and smugglers in the year 2022 for his father's presidential campaign which turned out to be extremely successful, but instead utilised the money to live a luxurious life in the northern city of Barranquilla.

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"To my son I wish luck and strength. May these occurrences forge his character and may he reflect about his own errors," the president said. "As I affirmed to the attorney general I will not intervene nor pressure his decisions, may the law freely guide the process."

The president has vowed to make peace or surrender deals with rebels and criminal groups to put an end to Colombia's 60-year internal conflict, which has claimed lives of 450,000 people.

Prosecutors confirmed the arrest of the president's son on money laundering charges and illicit enrichment.

The attorney general's office will request to a judge that the younger Petro and Vasquez be held on the charges, it said.

"Charges will be formulated for the aforementioned crimes and liberty restriction measures will be requested," the attorney general's office said in a statement, adding the arrests took place at 6 a.m. local time (1100 GMT).

Since the case came to light, the Colombian president has denied accepting cash from the country's potent cocaine lords. He himself asked that his son be probed.

Nicolas Petro was a lawmaker for his father's party in the Northern Atlantic department. His bank records, which were published by several local media outlets, showed he had far more money than what would correspond to that of the salary withdrawn from Congress.

Once, during an interview, Vasquez said that her former husband received the equivalent of $124,000 from a former drug trafficker named Samuel Santander Lopesierra.

Santander Lopesierra served 18 years in prison in the United States for drug trafficking.

(With inputs from agencies)

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