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"He told me he was going to get me in trouble and they could kill him and they could kill me. Nicholas told me that. That why he was delivering his head on a silver platter." The eldest son of President Gustavo Petro was right. His ex-wife annihilated his political career and relationship with his father.

The revelations of Dayssuris del Carmen Velásquez, whom they call Day, about the dark money that Nicolás Petro received when they were married, have completely sunk him. Not only will he have to leave his seat, his father has also turned his back on him. He intends to emerge unscathed from the earthquake caused by the explosive interview of his former daughter-in-law to the Colombian magazine Semana.

"Don't start with the rhetoric that I'm a hurting woman. I will hand over the evidence to the appropriate entities. Thank you," Day wrote on Twitter. She responded to those who alleged that she took out the dirty laundry because Nicolás, who had promised her a Catholic wedding, left her for her best friend, Laura Ojeda, who, in addition, was pregnant.

They often talked about the millions in dollars they received in cash from people of dubious reputation.

Whatever the reason for speaking, the key is the secrets that expose and splash the Head of State.

"We never had the opportunity to live together, I did not raise it, that is the reality," the president alleged this Sunday to another Bogota media, in a vain attempt to cushion the aftershocks of the shock.

Day Vásquez and Nicolás Petro Burgos were civilly married in April 2019, in an intimate ceremony attended by Gustavo Petro and his current wife, Verónica Alcocer. A 36-year-old lawyer with a Master's Degree in Climate Change that he completed in Barcelona, the son of the president of Colombia is also a deputy in the Assembly of the Atlantic, northern department whose capital is Barranquilla.

Nicolás Petro with his father, Gustavo PetroAFP

Nicolás came into the world in 1986, when his father belonged to the M-19 and was imprisoned as a result of the relationship with Katia Burgos, a "good girl" from Ciénaga de Oro, Gustavo Petro's hometown. The couple separated shortly after leaving prison. "He was the guerrilla who takes the girl from the upper-class family," the current president wrote in an autobiography.

The mother returned with her son to her home in the village and Nicolás grew up with her and her grandparents. Father and son met again years later, when the current President aspired to the Senate and the boy lived in Barranquilla and cherished the idea of following in his footsteps. Since then the relationship was strengthened and Nicolás participated in various political campaigns and managed to be a regional deputy.

OBSESSED WITH A CHALET

Day came from a humble Barranquilla family, worked in the city council of that city and crossed paths by chance. Although it seemed like a couple in love, very close, who exhibited their love on social networks and she accompanied him in his political runs, the woman recorded the conversations and saved the chats they exchanged. To the point that he delivered 1,600 pages of chats between 2021 and 2023 to support his accusations.

Gustavo Petro with the King of Spain, Felipe VIGTRES

Since discretion was not a virtue of marriage, they often spoke of the millions in cash they received from people of dubious reputation. The destination of the funds was to be the presidential campaign of Papa Gustavo, but Nicolás kept everything. He lived obsessed with buying a villa in a luxurious residential area of Barranquilla and needed to raise the 1,600 million pesos (312,000 euros) it cost.

On occasion they argued because Day wanted to spend on other things and Nicolás insisted that the house was the main objective. They managed to pay half and it was so ostentatious for their income, Day said her mother-in-law was impressed. It seemed to him the home of a narco.

Among the contributors, two are the most controversial. Santander López Sierra had spent 18 years imprisoned in the United States. Nicknamed the Marlboro Man, for being once the king of tobacco smuggling, he returned to his country in 2018 and to politics, his passion. He campaigned for Gustavo Petro and gave Nicolás 600 million pesos (117,000 euros) under the table, according to Day.

The second, with 400 million (78,000 euros), is Alfonso Hilsaca, questioned businessman from Cartagena de Indias. Accused of ordering the murder of four prostitutes and various irregularities in the public contracts he obtained, he was never convicted.

In the conversations of the old marriage, the anguish of finding hiding places for the wads of bills and the way to move them to Barranquilla is surprising.

"We have to get dollars out of here urgently," Nicolas wrote in July 2021. "Put that in the suitcase."

- Put it in yourself. That weighs. I can't," Day replied.

-In a suitcase and tell your dad to bring the car urgently.

"Nope. They stop that car and trunk (size) of," Day said.

The case is in the hands of the Attorney General's Office, which has requested protection for Day. They fear for their lives.

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