'We escaped being killed': Colombian President Gustavo Petro claims over an assassination attempt
&imwidth=600&imheight=450&format=webp&quality=medium "'We escaped being killed': Colombian President Gustavo Petro claims over an assassination attempt")
File photo of Colombian President Gustavo Petro. Photograph: (AFP)
Colombian President Gustavo Petro, who is constitutionally barred from seeking re-election, has repeatedly alleged that a drug-trafficking network has been plotting against him since he took office in August 2022.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro said on Tuesday that he had narrowly escaped an assassination attempt earlier in the day, following months of warnings about a suspected plot by drug traffickers to kill him. Petro said on Monday night that the helicopter was compelled to abort its landing on Colombia’s Caribbean coast after intelligence indicated that unspecified people “were going to shoot” at it.
“We headed out to open sea for four hours, and I arrived somewhere we weren’t supposed to go, escaping from being killed,” Petro said in a cabinet meeting that was broadcast live.
Plot to kill Gustavo Petro
The president’s remarks come amid a spike in violence ahead of the country’s presidential elections, in a nation long affected by armed conflict involving guerrilla groups and other militias. Petro, who is constitutionally barred from seeking re-election, has repeatedly alleged that a drug-trafficking network has been plotting against him since he took office in August 2022.
He said the alleged conspiracy involves powerful narcotics traffickers and armed leaders, including Ivan Mordisco, who heads the largest faction of Farc dissidents that rejected the 2016 peace accord.
Including presidential candidates, Colombia has a long list of leftist leaders who have been assassinated over the years. Petro, the first-ever leftist president of South American had reported another alleged attempt on his life in 2024.
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