Colombia's first avowedly left-wing president is mired in scandal

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BACKPACKS full of cash, Caribbean condominiums and 1.1bn unexplained pesos ($281,000): these sound like details in a John le Carré novel, not the stuff of court papers. And yet all three appear in the evidence in a criminal case against Nicolás Petro, son of Gustavo Petro, Colombia's first avowedly left-wing president. On January 11th Colombian prosecutors charged Mr Petro junior with illicit enrichment and money laundering. The court rejected his lawyer's request to scrap the proceedings, and set a trial date for the end of April.

His son's predicament is part of a constellation of scandals encumbering Mr Petro who, nearly 18 months into office, is facing an uphill battle to win support for his ambitious programme of reforms. As for Colombians, optimism about their leader's "government of hope" is fading.

This article appeared in the The Americas section of the print edition under the headline "The cost of scandal"

From the January 27th 2024 edition

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