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Gustavo Petro assures that he denounces in Spain for alleged kidnapping he has "neither head nor tail"

2022-05-31T19:20:09.879Z


A court in Spain partially admitted a complaint against the presidential candidate for the alleged kidnapping of journalist Fernando González Pacheco, a Spanish national


Petro and Hernández go to the second presidential round 0:47

(CNN Spanish) --

Colombian presidential candidate Gustavo Petro said that a complaint partially admitted for processing in Spain for the alleged kidnapping of a journalist has "neither head nor tail" and denied knowing the victim in person.

"Unfortunately, I could never meet him personally, he was a person very loved by the generations that saw him, he worked for a long time on television," he said in an interview with Caracol Radio.

  • The 5 controversies of Gustavo Petro, candidate for the presidency of Colombia

Fernando González Pacheco was a popular television host in Colombia.

Pacheco was the host of programs such as 'Animalandia', 'What couple more couple', 'Choose your partner', 'Head and tail', 'Follow the track' and 'Do you want cocoa?'.

He was kidnapped in 1981 by the M-19 for three days.

In an interview with RCN, Pacheco said that he was kidnapped "to deliver a message to the president."

During his abduction, Pacheco said that he was able to interview Jaime Bateman Cayón, leader of the M-19.

The pioneer of Colombian television died in Bogotá in 2014.

The Central Court of Instruction number 6 of the National Court of Spain partially admitted for processing this May 19 a complaint against Petro for alleged kidnapping in 1981 of Pacheco, CNN was able to confirm.

The Colombian newspaper El Tiempo reported on Monday the admission of the complaint.

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The complaint entered the National High Court on March 18 of this year after being filed in Colombia by a person named François Roger Cavard Martínez and forwarded to the Spanish high court through the International Rogatory Commission procedure.

"A man I don't know, who has come here chasing me, trying to see how, in the middle of an election, it becomes news. He tried it here in Colombia and couldn't," Petro said in the aforementioned interview about who filed the complaint. complaint.

  • What is the history of Gustavo Petro in the M-19 guerrilla?

According to the complaint, Petro was a member of the "narco-paramilitary" armed group M-19, which during the 1970s and 1980s "used systematically and indiscriminately to kidnap people (...) with the aim of destroying those they considered their enemy." .

However, in the interview with the Colombian media, Petro also denied knowing Bateman personally.

The guerrilla group was demobilized in 1990. As a member of this organization, the presidential candidate would be linked to the kidnapping of Pacheco, "to whom in open sources Spain is attributed as the place of birth, so it is logical to think that he would hold Spanish nationality of origin”, according to the order written by Joaquín Gadea, instructor of the court that handles the case.

The text of the complaint that entered the National High Court on March 18 charged Petro with up to 40 criminal acts as a member of the M-19 organization, as stated in the report that the Spanish Public Prosecutor's Office prepared at the request of the high court.

However, given that these reported facts would have no connection with the Spanish jurisdiction, the court decided not to investigate them.

In order for the legal procedure to continue, it will be necessary for the victim's relatives to appear as plaintiffs, since the Spanish Prosecutor's Office requested the inadmissibility of the complaint, considering that the Spanish courts are not competent in this case.

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2:48

Additionally, and to ascertain his competence, Gadea has asked the National Police to verify that Pacheco held Spanish nationality at the time of the events, to find out with the Colombian justice system if Petro has already been investigated, acquitted or convicted of the events. denounced, and that they contact the presidential candidate to offer him the possibility of appearing in person in the procedure.

After the signing in 1984 of the peace accords with the government of then President Belisario Betancur, Petro agreed to be a member of the M-19 and spent a year and a half in prison by order of the military criminal justice system.

"I was taken to prison. That means that I was not sentenced in legal terms (...) I was not prosecuted by a judge or by the justice system. We could simply call him 'arrested' and, by decision of an Army colonel, arrested for 18 months [for] military justice," Petro recalled about that time.

The left-wing leader and Colombian presidential candidate Gustavo Petro won just over 40% of the vote in the first round of the elections last Sunday, and will face Rodolfo Hernández in the second round in June.

Florencia Trucco, Ana Melgar, Gerardo Lemos, Fernando Ramos, and Paula Bravo contributed to this report

SpainGustavo Petro

Source: cnnespanol

All news articles on 2022-05-31

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