The lawyer representing a businessman accused of financing killings by paramilitary death squads has admitted that his client donated money to the campaign of Colombia’s first ever leftwing president, Gustavo Petro.
Alfonso Hilsaca knowingly gave 400m pesos ($95,000) to Gustavo Petro’s eldest son as a donation to his father’s electoral campaign, his lawyer said this week – though he said Hilsaca had not expected Nicolás Petro to steal the money for himself.
The admission is the latest development in a scandal involving alleged donations of narco-money into Petro’s 2022 campaign that threatens to derail the president’s hopes of bringing reform to the Andean nation – and could lead to the former guerrilla being indicted.
“It’s a very serious situation that compromises this government and threatens its stability,” said Jorge Restrepo, director of the Bogotá-based Resource Center for Conflict Analysis (Cerac). “This issue will monopolise the attention of congress as well as the public. The agenda is entirely different now.”
Prosecutors announced earlier this month that Nicolás Petro, who was also a lawmaker on the Caribbean coast, admitted to receiving “large sums” of money, some of which made their way into his father’s campaign. He says he has audio recordings, text messages and documents that corroborate the claims.
The president’s son has pleaded not guilty, although he agreed to assist authorities in their investigations. Prosecutors are looking into whether the payments were made by prominent drug traffickers.
Analysts say the investigation is the biggest challenge yet for the leftwing administration, which is increasingly unpopular and struggling to deliver the radical change it promised.
The investigation into the dirty money allegations was started by Nicolás Petro’s former wife, Daysuris Vásquez. After discovering that her husband had cheated on her with her best friend – with whom Petro is now expecting a child – Vásquez told local media that he had siphoned off more than $200,000 of funds intended for Gustavo Petro’s campaign.
The payments were allegedly made by drug traffickers in exchange for guaranteeing armed groups the chance to negotiate peace deals with the government, but were instead spent on lavish properties and new cars, Vásquez said.
Gustavo Petro has tried to distance himself from the scandal, telling local media that he did not raise his eldest son, and has alluded to conspiracy at rallies. “They are going to hammer these mistakes to try to open the way for the collapse of the first popular government in Colombia,” he told supporters on 3 August. “This is a project of change and they are not going to bend us.”
But convincing the public that the president was unaware of the allegedly dirty money will be challenging, analysts say. Gustavo Petro frequently campaigned alongside his son at rallies on the Caribbean coast.
The alleged corruption is growing rapidly and has drawn parallels with the Car Wash scandal, which rocked Brazilian politics in 2014.
Hilsaca is under investigation for allegedly ordering Los Rastrojos, a paramilitary group, to kill a demobilised member in 2009. The businessman, who previously made a living running nightclubs, has funded political campaigns on the Caribbean coast, allegedly in exchange for shady public contracts. He has denied all allegations of wrongdoing.
Samuel Santander Lopesierra, a notorious drug trafficker who returned to Colombia in 2021 after a 17-year prison sentence in the US, also allegedly gave cash to Nicolás Petro.
The investigation over the alleged narco-donations is the latest in a series of scandals that have marred Petro’s first year as president, and his clumsy transition from leading opposition figure.
The government was embroiled in the “Nannygate” affair in June when Gustavo Petro’s chief of staff, Laura Sarabia, was forced to step down after allegedly forcing her maid to take a lie test in the presidential complex and having her phones tapped by the intelligence services.
The latest allegations are denting the government’s already waning popularity and will hurt their results in local elections in October, analysts say. Petro’s approval rating stands at about 33% in polls.
It will also make it harder for Petro’s Historic Pact coalition to introduce the radical change he has promised, including sweeping reforms to labour and pensions and getting armed drug traffickers to put down their weapons.
It is unlikely Petro will be indicted as a result of the investigation but the constant testimonies of figures close to the president will be deeply damaging, says Sergio Guzmán, director of Colombia Risk Analysis.
“A lot of people seem to think this will be resolved quickly,” he says. “It will not. The Petro administration is likely going to spend the rest of its tenure defending itself against allegations that it received funding from drug traffickers.”
