Colombian prosecutors plan to press charges against national oil company president

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Colombia’s Attorney General’s Office said Monday it will file corruption charges against the president of national oil company Ecopetrol that hearken back to his days as a campaign manager for President Gustavo Petro.

Ecopetrol President Ricardo Roa managed the finances of Petro’s 2022 presidential campaign and prosecutors say they have enough evidence to prove he helped the campaign to illegally exceed spending limits.

Roa, an engineer who has served as Ecopetrol’s CEO since April 2023, will also be prosecuted for influence peddling, the Attorney General’s office said Monday.

Prosecutors say Roa steered Ecopetrol contracts toward a company owned by a business owner who sold him a luxurious apartment in Bogota at a steep discount. Roa has denied the corruption charges, as well as accusations that the president’s campaign exceeded spending limits.

In November, Colombia’s National Electoral Council imposed a fine on Roa and two other campaign administrators for allegedly exceeding spending limits and funding the campaign with money from illegal sources.

Petro’s presidential campaign came under fire in 2023, when a lawyer representing a government contractor with links to a paramilitary group said his client had donated thousands of dollars to the political campaign.

The president’s son, Nicolas Petro, who is under investigation for money laundering, told prosecutors in 2023 that funds from a former drug trafficker were used in his father’s campaign.

Petro has denied the charges against his campaign, and described them as an effort to undermine his government.

Colombia is holding congressional and presidential elections later this year. The nation’s constitution bars presidents from seeking reelection.

Petro has asked voters to back candidates that support his economic reforms, and to vote for members of congress that support a rewrite of the nation’s constitution.