As Colombia enters a critical election season, fears of escalating political violence and intimidation are mounting after President Gustavo Petro invited known leaders of criminal organizations to his public rally in Medellín. The move has triggered outrage across the political spectrum and sparked an urgent call for increased protection of public officials – especially mayors and members of the opposition.
On Saturday, June 21, Petro delivered a speech in Medellín’s central La Alpujarra plaza demanding a Constitutional Assembly, flanked by his coalition party members, the incarcerated gang leaders were bused-in from the Itagüí maximum security prison to attend the rally. Among them were some of the most feared figures in the Aburrá Valley underworld – aliases Tom, Douglas, Pesebre, El Tigre, El Indio, and others – many of whom have been linked to decades of extortion, drug trafficking, and extra-judicial killings.
The event, billed as a celebration of Petro’s “Total Peace” agenda, has become a national disgrace. Federico “Fico” Gutiérrez, mayor of Medellín and former presidential candidate, who currently enjoys the highest approval rating of any mayor in Colombia at 79% (according to a recent Invamer poll), called Petro’s rally “a threat to democracy” and a betrayal of the victims of organized crime. “While I fight these criminal structures, Petro rewards them,” said Gutiérrez. “He put the tombstone on us.”
Gutiérrez revealed he had recently received death threats from alias “Douglas,” one of the criminal leaders who was welcomed by the president. The threats, he said, followed a months-long investigation by the Medellín mayor’s office, the Attorney General’s Office, and the National Police into money laundering networks involving cartel leaders and their relatives. “Today, the president chose to legitimize the very people who have terrorized our city,” he said. “This isn’t peace. This is surrender.”
The timing of the rally – exactly two weeks after an assassination attempt against conservative senator and presidential candidate Miguel Uribe Turbay – has further raised the alarm. On June 7, Uribe was shot twice at close range while presiding a campaign rally in Bogotá. The 39-year-old politician remains in “gravely critical condition” according to the last official statement, on June 18, from the Fundación Santa Fe Hospital.
Colombia’s Attorney General’s Office has officially classified the attack as a political act “committed because of his position as a senator, presidential candidate, and member of the opposition critical of the Petro government.”
According to RCN Noticias, during subsequent raids in Bogotá, authorities recovered 30 photos of Bogotá Mayor Carlos Fernando Galán and Attorney General Luz Adriana Camargo from the phone of the underage shooter. Investigators also seized a second phone belonging to alias “El Costeño,” a dangerous criminal believed to have supplied the teenager with the expensive 9mm Glock pistol. Prosecutors are now examining whether other public officials are being targeted.
These developments have deeply unsettled political leaders across the country, especially mayors, many of whom have been openly critical of Petro’s government and fear they could victims of another attack.
“We are entering an election season, and many of us are already seeing threats escalate,” said Mayor Galán. “While capital cities have increased their security budgets by 30%, the national government has cut its contribution by nearly 20%. That’s not just unacceptable – it’s dangerous.”
In a united response, the 23 Mayors of Colombia’s capital cities demanded the immediate release of COP$300 billion pesos in frozen security funds. “We need to protect our institutions – and our lives,” Galán said. “The national government must take responsibility.”
Former President Álvaro Uribe Vélez, one of Petro’s fiercest critics, issued a scathing rebuke on social media: “Verbal and lethal bullets. And Miguel [Uribe] in the clinic,” he wrote. “When peace is represented by the display of those who have murdered, citizens receive the message that crime is legitimate. Colombia cannot continue to confuse peace and forgiveness with the glorification of criminals.”
The two-term conservative leader emphasized that during his presidency, opposition figures received full security protections. “No opposition leader was assassinated,” he stated. “That’s what democracy demands.”
Critics argue that Petro’s “Total Peace” – aimed at negotiating with armed groups to reduce violence – is a political smokescreen. Instead of demobilization, they warn, it enables criminal leaders to whitewash their reputations and reenter society under the guise of reconciliation.
Petro’s recent brandishing of a forgotten 19th-century flag known as “Guerra a Muerte” (“War to Death”), and used by Liberator Simón Bolívar in 1819 against Spanish Royalist forces, has added fuel to the polarizing discourses emanating from Casa de Nariño. The president recently waved the red-and-black insignia during a rally in Bogotá’s Plaza de Bolívar when launching his national referendum campaign – and then later, displayed it on a desk when signing the decree.
“He has waved the ‘Flag of Death,” said Gutiérrez. “And then he shared a stage with the men who have held this city hostage.”
As Uribe Turbay fights for his life inside an ICU ward, Gutiérrez drew a chilling connection: “Petro waved the ‘Flag of Death,’ and then had it visible in his office. A few days later, an attempt was made on presidential candidate Miguel Uribe. Now, he takes the stage with the worst criminals, threatening me and the other institutions of Antioquia. I can’t imagine the outcome.”
Antioquia’s Governor Andrés Julián Rendón called Saturday’s rally “a humiliation to the victims,” warning that it sends a dangerous message to communities living under the weight of organized crime. “Today it’s Medellín,” said Rendón. “Tomorrow it could be any other city.”
As Colombia barrels toward a contentious 2026 election, the specter of renewed political violence looms large. Some fear the country is inching toward a scenario not seen since the 1989 assassination of presidential frontrunner Luis Carlos Galán Sarmiento by the Medellín Cartel – father of Bogotá’s current mayor.
Gutiérrez’s warning is unequivocal: “This wasn’t a political act. It’s a reward for barbarism. It’s a threat. An intimidation. A message of war.”
During the 2022 presidential campaign, Gutiérrez was the target of a coordinated smear campaign by paid social media influencers aligned with the Petro Presidente campaign. The online strategy sought to tarnish Gutiérrez as the presidential frontrunner by associating his name with drug trafficking, using slogans such as “NarcotraFICO” to spread disinformation. These digital attacks falsely linked the reputation of Gutiérrez to paramilitary organizations, despite his longstanding record of combating crime.
The Mayor of Medellín closed with a message that is resonating far beyond Antioquia: “I ask the country, the institutions, and the international community to take note of what happened on Saturday. It was an act of intimidation. May God protect us.”
