The president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, on Thursday asked the Attorney General’s Office to investigate his eldest son, Nicolás Petro Burgos, to clarify rumors that point to alleged bribes from drug traffickers and prisoners, in exchange for including them in the policy of total peace, adopted by the current government.
The request also covers his brother, Juan Fernando Petro Urrego, who had already been summoned in early February by the Attorney General’s Office to explain his dealings with some drug traffickers held in prisons in the country. During a hearing, Juan Fernando asked to be recognized as a victim of the case because, he argued, his name is being used to achieve illegal approaches.
“Due to the information that is rumored in the public opinion about my brother Juan Fernando Petro Urrego and my eldest son Nicolás Petro Burgos, I ask the Attorney General of the Nation to advance all the necessary investigations and determine possible responsibilities”, said Petro, through a statement.
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The president recalled, through the letter, that the only official delegated by the government to contact the illegal organizations, “with the sole objective of the search for peace”, is the High Commissioner for Peace, Danilo Rueda.
Petro also clarified that his government will not “deliver benefits to criminals in exchange for bribes” and that it is “in the construction of legal mechanisms so that the illegal groups can be brought to justice, make reparations to the victims and cease violence in the territories”.
He also warned that if someone wants to interfere with achieving peace, in exchange for some personal benefit, “they have no place in the government”, even if they are his relatives, but that he trusts that his son and brother will prove their innocence and that he will respect the conclusions of the justice system.
At the beginning of February, the Office of the High Commissioner for Peace denounced that lawyers offered deceitful services to some prisoners to include them in an eventual submission to justice, within the framework of the policy of total peace.
Later on Thursday, Nicolás Petro’s ex-wife, Days Vásquez, assured to Semana that the eldest son of the Colombian president received money for his father’s presidential campaign from Santander Lopesierra, known as ‘the Malboro man’ and who was convicted for drug trafficking, and from Alfonso ‘el Turco Hilsaca’, investigated for links with paramilitaries. However, he clarified that the president is unaware of these facts.
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“Nicolás received money from that gentleman, more than 600 million for his father’s campaign. That never legally reached the campaign because he kept that money and others. To a gentleman from Cartagena, ‘El Turco Hilsaca’, I think his name is; he also received him in my apartment”, said Vásquez to the publication.
In response to the statements, the president’s son requested, through a statement, “an investigation for clarification and protection” of his “honor and good name”.
Regarding the link with ‘the Malboro man’ and ‘el Turco Hilsaca’, he assured that he does not know them and stressed: “I have not had any dealings, nor have I received any kind of support either directly or indirectly”.
In the same document, he reiterated his father’s request to the Prosecutor’s Office to advance the investigation related to the alleged bribes, but clarified that “neither before, nor during, nor after the presidential campaign” he has “been linked to anything related to ‘total peace’”.
“I have not met, nor have I received any type of political, personal or economic favor from any questionable character”, he pointed out.
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Nicolás Petro informed that, in both cases, he will take legal actions and will make himself available to the Prosecutor’s Office for whatever is required to ratify, according to him, his “innocence” in the face of what he called “political and personal attacks” that seek to “destroy” his political work.
The new truce plan in Gaza includes “many demands” from Hamas, according to an Egyptian source
The talks held between delegations from Egypt and Israel in Tel Aviv for a truce in Gaza were “largely positive and successful” and included “many of the demands” of the Islamist movement Hamas, an Egyptian security source familiar with the negotiations and another from Hamas reported to EFE on Sunday.
A delegation from Hamas, headed by the member of the political bureau Khalil al-The Hague, is expected to arrive tomorrow in Cairo, mediator in the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian group, to deliver its response to the mediators, according to the Egyptian source, which asked not to be identified by the sensitivity of this issue.
This new proposal, on whose content it did not provide details, “overcomes the obstacles that hinder” the declaration of a truce, a ceasefire, the exchange of prisoners and hostages, as well as the entry of aid into the Gaza Strip.
The possible announcement of a truce “will contribute to the approval of a first phase and to the efforts of the entire international community to consolidate this ceasefire and seek to move to a permanent truce instead of a temporary one,” according to the informant.
On the other hand, a source of the Palestinian Islamist movement, which also asked for anonymity, confirmed to EFE that tomorrow a delegation from Hamas will arrive in the Egyptian capital to present its response to the new Israeli proposal.
The informant added that the proposal includes “reducing the minimum number of kidnapped that Hamas will commit to freeing and eliminating divisions in sections of the Gaza Strip.”
Last Friday, an Egyptian mediating delegation traveled to Tel Aviv to discuss this truce with Israel, while the Jewish State has warned that it will not allow the Palestinian group to delay and has once again threatened to invade Rafah, at the southern end of the strip and where more than a million refugees are overcrowded.
Hamas warns the United Kingdom that if it sends soldiers to Gaza they will be a “legitimate” military target
The Palestinian Islamist group Hamas warned the United Kingdom on Sunday that if it deploys military personnel in the Gaza Strip, after information that they could help in the distribution of humanitarian aid, they will be “legitimate targets” of its armed wing.
“We alert Britain, or any other country, against the deployment of forces on land or on the coast of the Gaza Strip and affirm that they will be legitimate targets for our people and their resistance,” Hamas said in a statement.
The armed group charged against any initiative in the Palestinian enclave that does not have its approval.
The Islamist group responded to the information released on Saturday by the British network BBC, according to which the British Armed Forces could deploy troops to deliver humanitarian aid on the ground arriving in Gaza through the new floating dock that is being built by Israel and the United States.
The public broadcaster indicated that the United Kingdom could be the intermediary to which the United States referred when it said that it would not be the American soldiers, but others, who would distribute the food packages sent by ship from Cyprus and then transferred to Gaza.
Yesterday, the Israeli Army assured at a press conference with international media that international organizations would be in charge of the distribution of humanitarian aid, but did not indicate which ones would have agreed to collaborate.
Although the British Government has not confirmed the news, the BBC affirms, according to anonymous sources, that the Ministry of Defense is considering getting involved with ‘wet boots’ on the ground.
The possible role of the British forces would involve driving the trucks with the help from the landing boats on the floating runway, hundreds of meters long, and delivering it to a safe distribution area on dry land, the station explained.
The London Ministry of Defense reported on Friday, in turn, that the British Navy auxiliary ship RFA Cardigan Bay set sail from Cyprus to provide support for the construction of the temporary dock, which is led by the United States.
This ship will provide accommodation for hundreds of American sailors and soldiers, about whom Washington has made it clear that they will not set foot in Gaza territory.
Nancy Pelosi says that Netanyahu “could not have made things worse” in Gaza
Former President of the United States House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi said that the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, “could not have made things worse” in the conflict in Gaza, in an interview broadcast this Sunday by the BBC.
Pelosi, who on Thursday participated in an event at the English university of Oxford, told the ‘Laura Kuenssberg Program’ that Netanyahu “was never a peace agent” and admitted that she “is not a great fan of his.”
The congresswoman said that what is happening in the Strip “challenges the conscience of the world” and maintained that the impact of famine on children “is almost unforgivable”, while calling the Hamas attack on Israeli territory on October 7 “barbaric”.
“Israel has the right to defend itself, but the way it is doing it is a challenge because Netanyahu has never been a peace agent,” he said.
“I’m not a great admirer of yours; I couldn’t have done things worse than those tens of thousands, or whatever number it is, of dead people, malnourished children and the uncertainty that exists… and that’s what people are talking about,” he said.
Asked if she understood why young people in the United States used controversial tactics when protesting against the conflict, Pelosi opined that “when they go beyond the campuses and block the Golden Gate Bridge, or something else, for a long time, and people can’t go to the doctor or the hospital or anything urgent in their lives, they don’t get support.”
But he added: “How can demonstrations on (university) campuses be criticized? That’s a way of life in the United States.”
On Thursday, the British police evicted two pro-Palestinian protesters who protested during their speech on populism to students from the University of Oxford, while abroad another group criticized her for her defense of Israel and her position on the movement to support Palestine.
