During another day in which Colombia’s Gustavo Petro summoned “the people” to march in support of his leftist reforms, the Bogotá demonstration did not resonate beyond a usual cast of trade unionists, unionized district workers, as well as many high school students who were told by their unionized teachers to accompany the pro-government protest.
With his finger firmly pressed to his Twitter feed, Wednesday’s march will not deflect attention from one of the worst political scandals to rock a national government since the “8.000” process of former President Ernesto Samper. As a crisis that threatens to destabilize Colombia, and plunge the nation into a state of ungovernability, the “15.000” scandal of alleged drug money infiltrating the 2022 election campaign of Petro Presidente, surfaced after audio of a conversation between Colombia’s former Ambassador to Venezuela, Armando Benedetti, and Petro’s former chief of staff, Laura Sarabia, was leaked to Semana news organization.
In his audio messages, an angry Benedetti affirms that he facilitated 15,000 million pesos (equivalent to US$3.4 million) for the 2022 Petro Presidente campaign and that this donation broke finance limits, and allegedly included illicit funds from persons who “are not business leaders.” Threatening to reveal the source of who was behind the donation, Benedetti’s foul-mouthed tirade with Sarabia, recalls for many Colombians the extent to which drug money from the Cali Cartel infiltrated the 1994 Samper Presidente campaign.
The claims by Benedetti were rebuked by the former Ambassador’s boss, Foreign Minister Álvaro Leyva, as words spoken by someone “who admits to being a drug addict.” The remarks by Leyva attempted to defuse a crisis that now appears to be spiraling out of control for a President who has yet to complete his first year in office.
During Wednesday’s march, Petro addressed an estimated 12,000 supporters in Bogotá’s Plaza de Bolívar and launched a direct latest attack on the Colombian media. Accompanied by First Lady Verónica Alcocer, and Vice-President Francia Márquez, Petro dangerously stated: “Here, we have a press that hates our VP because of the color of her skin! Do the Colombian people want Colombia to return to slavery, and hatred against black people?”
The country’s first leftist leader then went on to claim, that Semana was orchestrating judicial raids on the Presidency. “Semana orders, and the CTI follows,” he said. The CTI is the criminal investigations unit of the Attorney General’s Office.
Petro’s latest discourse that the country’s media is “racist”, and a direct mention of a witch-hunt by news organizations, such as Semana, is being interpreted by U.S lawmakers as a way to deviate attention away from Benedetti’s explosive statements and on-going investigation into campaign finance. “In order to censor factual reporting on internal turmoil between fired senior officials, the Petro Administration has engaged in unjustified attacks against press freedom,” stated the Republican Senator from Florida, Marco Rubio. “The Colombian people have a right to know the truth behind potential campaign finance violations committed by former M-19 member Gustavo Petro’s presidential campaign,” he said.
Condemnation of Petro’s incendiary remarks has been equally swift from Colombian politicians and journalists. “The government, and many of its supporters, say they have the right to question the media because it is supposedly “not telling the truth.” What truth should they tell? The one that defines the government? The “official” truth? This goes against the freedom of the press, one of the pillars of democracy,” stated Bogotá Mayoral candidate Carlos Fernando Galán.
Hemmed in during the rally by the political base hoisting election placards with the words “Change” or “Petro Presidente”, 10-months into his presidency, Petro appears to be increasingly cornered politically.
A recent news article in Bloomberg affirms that the Colombian leftist leader “now risks spending the next three years as an unpopular lame duck, wasting much of his energy defending himself in investigations.” A political gridlock, as well as prospect of an embattled presidency, could radicalise Petro’s discourse and threatens to stymie unpopular reforms to health, pensions, and labor. This scenario also recalls the administration of former President Ernesto Samper, who after having his U.S visa revoked with the 8.000 drug money investigation, could not deliver on his political agenda.
The prospect of such gridlock is all but certain to anger voters who hoped he’d usher in a wave of changes. But it has been welcomed by investors, who never trusted the economist and former guerrilla, or liked his reforms. Former President Iván Duque also raised his voice of concern to the growing chorus of outrage over Petro’s most recent attack on the media. “When freedom of the press is threatened in a democracy, democracy itself is at risk. The bullying of the media that we have seen today is unprecedented and deserves the international community to speak out as well as the independent powers,” said Duque on Twitter.
