( Spanish) –– The Colombian Attorney General’s Office reported this Friday that it had opened an investigation for “possible illegal financing of the electoral campaign” of President Gustavo Petro.
The measure seeks to establish “possible responsibilities in the crimes of financing electoral campaigns from prohibited sources, violation of electoral limits and others that can be classified,” the entity said in a statement.
The Prosecutor’s Office added that in the investigation the prosecutors “will direct their actions towards registered and non-registered persons”, without giving further details.
Until this Friday, President Petro had not made a public statement on this investigation. is trying to get a comment from the Colombian Presidency.
This week, during a march of supporters, the president denied any irregularity and assured that “not a single dirty peso entered his campaign.”
The Prosecutor’s investigation arises after Petro said this Sunday that his government has not ordered the interception of telephones or illegal searches. Statements given in response to magazine publication Week of some audios attributed to Armando Benedetti, former Colombian ambassador to Venezuela, in which he threatens to reveal details of the financing of the political campaign that brought the president to power.
So far, no evidence has been presented proving illegal financing of the Petro campaign.
The investigation also comes at a tense time in relations between Petro and the Colombian prosecutor, Francisco Barbosa, especially after the president suggested in early May that according to his interpretation of the country’s Constitution he was the “boss.” of the prosecutor
Faced with these comments by Petro ––in relation to a journalistic investigation that attributed homicides and disappearances of citizens to the Clan del Golfo––, Barbosa responded in a public act that “no one can submit to Colombian justice, no matter how much power they believe they have within the framework of the Presidency”.
The crossing of statements made the president of the Supreme Court of Justice of Colombia, Fernando Castillo Cadena, call for “good sense, respect and sanity” between the parties.
With information from Fernando Ramos, from en Español.
