Colombian President’s Son Arrested on Money Laundering Charges

The son of Colombian President Gustavo Petro was arrested on Saturday for money laundering and illicit enrichment for allegedly pocketing money from convicted drug traffickers, the attorney general’s office announced. Earlier this year, Nicolás Petro’s ex-wife, Daysuris del Carmen Vásquez, claimed to local media that her former husband took illicit contributions from people accused of drug trafficking to fund his father’s campaign. She said the president was unaware of his son’s dealings. Both Nicolás Petro and Vásquez were taken into custody on orders of a court in the country’s capital of Bogota and will face provisional detention as prosecutors investigate the allegations. On Twitter, Gustavo Petro wished his son “luck and strength” but promised not to interfere with the attorney general’s probe. “As an individual and father, it pains me to see so much self-destruction and one of my sons going to jail,” he wrote in Spanish. “As President of the Republic, I’ve ensured that the prosecution has all the guarantees on my part to proceed in accordance with the law.”