(Bogotá) Colombian President Gustavo Petro found himself directly implicated on Monday in the scandal of blackmail, illegal wiretapping and lie detector involving two of his relatives, the electoral commission having opened an investigation into the financing of his campaign.
Recordings of the former Colombian ambassador to Venezuela, Armando Benedetti, one of the actors in the scandal who was dismissed from his post last week by Mr. Petro, added this weekend a new episode to this scandal in the form of of telenovela with drawers.
According to their transcription on Sunday by the conservative weekly weekMr. Benedetti threatened the chief of staff of the president Laura Sarabia – also removed from office – to reveal an alleged illegal financing of the electoral campaign of the candidate Petro to the tune of 3.5 million dollars.
“Laura […] We are all going to fall. We are all finished. We all go to jail […] With all the shit I know, we are all fucked, if you fuck me, I fuck you” (sic), declares the former diplomat in these recordings full of insults where we do not hear his interlocutor.
An old backpacker in Colombian politics, Armando Benedetti played a key role in the victory of the first left-wing president in the country’s history in the summer of 2022. He claimed on Twitter that his audios “were manipulated” and s apologized to Mr. Petro, but did not deny their authenticity.
“It is clear that there is a campaign to discredit me […] for the purpose of disqualifying what I might say in the future,” he added.
Following these revelations, in one of all the national media, the National Electoral Commission (CNE) announced the opening of a preliminary investigation, and summoned for June 13 the two protagonists of the affair, Mr. Benedetti and Mr.me Sarabia.
The CNE also asked the weekly Semana for the full audio recordings.
“No to blackmail”
“No member of the government cabinet, nor director or commander of the security forces, nor director of the intelligence apparatus has ordered telephone interceptions, or unlawful searches, or accepted blackmail about public positions or contracts, or received money in the campaign from people linked to drug traffickers, ”defended Mr. Petro on Twitter on Monday.
“I do not accept blackmail nor do I see politics as a space for personal favors,” he added, expressing his solidarity with Mme Sarabia under “enormous pressure”.
“I think I understand what is going on in the mind of Armando Benedetti, I accept his apologies, but he must explain his words to the prosecution and to the country,” continued Mr. Petro.
His vice-president Francia Marquez and several members of his cabinet have stepped up to defend him. “We could have expected that the right would not sit idly by watching how we govern Colombia towards change,” commented M.me Mark.
Mr. Benedetti and Mr.me Sarabia, among President Petro’s closest collaborators, are the protagonists of this scandal, which originated in the theft of a large sum of dollars from the home of Ms.me Sarabia.
The latter, suspecting a domestic worker (advised by Mr. Benedetti), had imposed a lie detector interrogation on him in an annex of the presidency. The prosecution also suspects the former chief of staff of having ordered wiretapping by passing the housekeeper for the accomplice of a drug trafficker.
Via his lawyer, Mr.me Sarabia assured Monday that she would respond “to all the demands of justice”, but that she would “defend herself from all outrageous and humiliating attacks” from Mr. Benedetti.
Following the release of Mr. Benedetti’s recordings, the House of Representatives announced on Monday the suspension of discussions on the reforms that the government has been trying for months to pass.
“Discussions on reforms are frozen until we can rebuild the government coalition […] Such important discussions […] cannot be disrupted by external factors,” said Lower House Speaker David Racero, a supporter of Speaker Petro.
Eleven months after his election as head of the country, Gustavo Petro is encountering many difficulties in getting his reforms adopted in Parliament, or even in his ambitious plan for “total peace” with the armed groups promised to the country.
He reshuffled his government at the end of April, while his coalition in Parliament with the centrists and the liberals broke up.