This was reported by the prosecutor’s office of Colombia. this friday what investigates possible illegal financing of the election campaign of Colombian President Gustavo Petro, in 2022.

The investigation, the prosecutor’s office said in a statement, “is focused on establishing whether crimes have been committed related to the possible illegal financing of the election campaign of the President of the Republic, Gustavo Petro Urrego.”

“Here possible liability will be established in crimes of campaign financing from prohibited sources, violation of electoral limits and others that can be typed,” added to the information.

The prosecutor’s office explained that the line of investigation is in the hands of prosecutors delegated to the Supreme Court of Justice and the Specialized Office for Combating Corruption, with whom it will try to establish whether it is true that illegal money was in the campaign.

“In this sense, the possibilities will be articulated and, in accordance with their powers, prosecutors will direct their actions in relation to registered and unregistered persons,” the document concludes.

The position of the prosecutor’s office is known after the release of audio recordings in which the former Colombian ambassador to Venezuela, Armando Benedetti, spoke about alleged irregularities in the financing of the Petro campaign, in which he was one of its top managers on the Atlantic coast.

Already stripped of his diplomatic post, Benedetti said in an audio recording sent to former chief of staff Laura Sarabia that he deserves better treatment from the government because he managed 15,000 million pesos (about $3.4 million), and says that if he counts who financed Petro’s Campaign on the Atlantic coast, they will all end up in jail.

“This is not cock sucking (joke), this is not a threat because you know me. I won’t let myself be sucked, Laura, I swear on the life of my children that this will never happen, we all drown, we all end up, we end up in jail,” he tells her in one of the entries published by Semana magazine.

Petro denied that this happened in his government, and last Sunday he assured that “blackmail over public positions or contracts was not accepted, and the campaign money did not come from people associated with drug trafficking, not to mention such numbers like 15,000 million from our account.”

In this direction, former presidential campaign manager Petro Ricardo Roa assured yesterday that “never” direct contributions or donations have been received or managed by the former ambassador Benedetti.

“Yes, there were important attempts to meet with businessmen, but there was never any talk of donations. None of these meetings took place,” Roa said in statements to the media.

(EFE)