Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro has been named in two separate criminal investigations led by prosecutors in the United States.The New York Times was the first to report the existence of the two probes on Friday, citing sources familiar with the proceedings.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of listMedia reports indicate that Petro is not personally the target of the investigations, which focus on drug-smuggling in Latin America.But according to the Times, US attorneys in Brooklyn and Manhattan are looking into whether Petro met with drug traffickers and solicited donations from them for his 2022 presidential campaign. Al Jazeera has not independently verified the Times report.By Friday afternoon, Petro had issued a statement denying the claims, which threaten to reopen the rift between the US and Colombia.“In Colombia, there is not a single investigation into my relationship with drug traffickers, for one simple reason: I have never in my life spoken with a drug trafficker,” Petro wrote on the social media platform X.He added that he told campaign managers to never accept donations from bankers or drug traffickers.The investigations in the US, he argued, would ultimately exonerate him, and he blamed Colombia’s right-wing opposition for stirring controversy.“So, the proceedings in the US will help me to dismantle the accusations of the Colombian far right, which is indeed closely linked to Colombian drug traffickers,” Petro said.Petro has not been charged with any crimes, and the investigations are in their initial stages, a …
