The alleged contacts with two mafia bigwigs, who apparently were asked for money to cover them with legal benefits of the “total peace” policy, are part of the theories handled by the Prosecutor’s Office in its inquiries about Juan Fernando Petro , the brother of the President of the Republic.
They are Juan José Valencia (“Falcon”), a drug trafficker allied with the Clan del Golfo in Antioquia and the Caribbean Coast; and José Leonardo Muñoz Martínez (“Douglas”), leader of “la Oficina” and “la Terraza”, who commit crimes in Valle de Aburrá and other regions of the country.
Sources linked to the peace approaches told EL COLOMBIANO that Juan F. Petro apparently met these characters at the beginning of 2022, when they were being held in the extraditable pavilion of La Picota prison, in Bogotá. At that time his brother Gustavo was running for president.
Juan Fernando’s visits to the prison were justified at that time by his militancy in the NGO Inter-Church Justice and Peace Commission, which usually provides advice to deprived of liberty, but in the most critical stage of the electoral contest for the Casa de Nariño Information was leaked that called these conversations into question.
It was said, for example, that the brother and other delegates of the candidate Petro were offering legal benefits to the gangsters, such as spokespersons for peace, prison transfers and suspension of extradition requests. All this in exchange for money and electoral support.
The case was widely known as “the Pact of La Picota”, although the Petro family and the Historical Pact denied the accusations.
As far as “Falcon” and “Douglas” are concerned, it appears that there were two meetings outside of jail. The first was on February 1, 2022 in a restaurant in El Poblado, with the presence of delegates of the criminals and Juan F. Petro.
The second would have been on June 7 (12 days before the presidential runoff) at a Mexican food outlet in the municipality of Rionegro, where Juan Fernando himself presumably attended.
To this clandestine appointment, the attendees would have worn wigs and dark glasses to go unnoticed. There was no film record, since it seems that the site’s surveillance cameras were turned off.
Sources close to the subject indicated that, apparently, “Falcon” delivered money through his relatives, with the purpose of stopping his extradition request to the United States.
The deal was not fulfilled, because on July 27, 10 days before the possession of Gustavo Petro, the drug trafficker was taken out of the country on a DEA plane, heading to a US prison.
The same sources say that “Douglas” also gave money for the Petro government to transfer him from La Picota to the Itagüí prison, closer to its area of influence, and then appoint him peace manager, giving him the guarantee to leave the prison. cell.
To date, neither one nor the other has happened, and he is still in Bogotá serving a 32-year sentence for kidnapping for extortion and conspiracy to commit a crime.
The fees paid by criminals, as this newspaper has been reporting, are around $500 million.
These alleged “non-compliances” would be generating a climate of mistrust between illegal organizations and the National Government.
Juan F. Petro, who has already appeared before the Prosecutor’s Office to give testimony, continues to deny these agreements under the table, declaring himself the victim of a plot to harm him and the current Head of State.
Gustavo Petro has tried to get out of this issue. On January 28, he tweeted that “no one can negotiate peace that is not our commissioner Danilo Rueda. Neither militants, nor lawyers, nor officials, nor my relatives at any level are empowered to negotiate peace.”
But given the increase in rumors, and with the Prosecutor’s Office on the trail of the alleged payment of bribes to access “total peace”, the President asked the accusing entity, this March 2, to investigate his brother and son Nicholas Petro. “I trust they can prove their innocence, but I will respect the conclusions reached by justice,” he wrote in a statement..
