PETROGATE: How does the Venezuelan dictatorship withdraw money from its population to finance elections of allies?

Information released by the Colombian newspaper El Expediente points out that the dictator of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, would have financed the victorious presidential campaign of Gustavo Petro in Colombia in 2022.

According to the newspaper, Petro's campaign for Maduro was financed through Clan Torres, a group led by businessman Euclides Torres, which has influence in Colombian politics and several contracts with state-owned companies in the Barranquilla region.

El Expediente claimed that Torres and his brothers, Camilo Torres and Dolcey Torres, the latter elected to the Colombian Chamber in 2022, would have entered Petro's campaign through Armando Benedetti, who was Petro's government ambassador in Venezuela recently.

The Torres had an old friendly relationship with Benedetti and would have financed Petro's campaign from the beginning, according to a source consulted by Caracol Radio.

Armando Benedetti and the head of the Presidential Office, Laura Sabino, were removed from their positions by Petro last week after the magazine Semana released audios in which the then ambassador claimed that he would reveal irregular financing in the president's campaign.

Máximo Noriega, who was political coordinator in Petro's campaign, spoke on Caracol Radio about the Torres' role in the presidential campaign and denied that they had intermediated the allocation of resources.

“More specifically, Camilo Torres and his brother, who is a deputy in the Chamber [Dolcey Torres], and Pedro Flórez [senator] played a very dynamic role from a political point of view. Gustavo's campaign. From an administrative and financial point of view, the information I have is that they did not participate in either the delivery or the receipt [of money], because it was not their role," said Noriega, who insisted that the management of resources was centralized and that the regional representations of Petro's political group were not authorized to approve or deny money for the campaign.

Maduro's financing

According to El Expediente, the Maduro regime financed Petro's campaign through a kind of money laundering, using Clan Torres companies.

The newspaper stated that Armando Benedetti had already informed the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), an agency of the United States Department of Justice in charge of the repression and control of narcotics, when he was removed by Petro.

According to El Expediente, Benedetti had asked the US government for protection. The DEA has placed Maduro on its wanted list for involvement in international drug trafficking .

El Expediente pointed out that the money mentioned by Benedetti in the audios revealed by Semana would have come directly from the Nicolás Maduro regime. The resources would have been sent through the Torres brothers to directly support the Historic Pact campaign, Petro's coalition.

Opening of investigation

On Monday (5), the National Electoral Council of Colombia (CNE) opened an investigation to investigate alleged irregularities in the financing of Petro's presidential campaign.

The investigation is based on a complaint that Petro allegedly failed to report payments made to election observers from the Pacto Histórico coalition to the commission in the first round of elections.

According to information released by the newspaper La Silla Vacía, at least 1,000 observers in eight regions of the country were paid for their work in the first round. However, these payments were not registered with the electoral authority by the current Colombian president's campaign, which was led by Ricardo Roa Barragán.

On May 30, the CNE issued an order to collect evidence within the administrative process that investigates alleged irregularities in the financing and reporting of revenues and expenses for Petro's electoral campaign.

After that, Colombia's Electoral Justice opened on Tuesday, 6, an investigation into alleged illegal contributions to the campaign of President Gustavo Petro , after audios published by the magazine A Semana and attributed to the former ambassador of Colombia in Venezuela, Armando Benedetti, insinuate that the campaign received money from drug trafficking. At the same time, the political crisis provoked by the scandal paralyzed the government this week, with the suspension of the processing of reforms in Petro's interest, including labor, the health system and social security.