Laura Gamba
05 June 2023•Update: 05 June 2023
BOGOTA, Colombia
Colombia's government is embroiled in the biggest scandal since President Gustavo Petro came to power last August, after a highly intricate situation involving leaked audios, illegal wiretaps and irregular financing of the president's campaign, were revealed.
In recordings published by Semana Magazine on Sunday, Colombia’s Ambassador to Venezuela and Petro's political ally Armando Benedetti, expresses anger when the president failed to attend a meeting with him and threatened to expose how Petro's campaign was illegally financed.
In those audios, Benedetti makes serious claims in vulgar terms to Laura Sarabia, former cabinet chief and Petro’s closest confidant, threatening to expose how approximately 3.4 million undeclared dollars entered Petro's campaign. Sarabia had previously performed as Benedetti's aid when he was elected to Congress.
The scandal started when the nanny of Laura Sabaria's son, Marelbys Meza, revealed she had been forcefully submitted to a polygraph test in a basement inside the presidential headquarters, after being accused of stealing a briefcase containing an undisclosed sum of money from Sarabia’s apartment. This accusation occurred in January 2021, but was only revealed a week ago. Sarabia and Benedetti were fired by the president on Friday.
Colombia’s general attorney, Francisco Barbosa, accused intelligence services of illegally tapping the phones of Meza and another worker, both hired by Sarabia for her household, who were allegedly framed for being part of a criminal band known as Clan del Golfo.
Those events all concluded in an accusation against the government of abusing power.
“It is a regrettable day for the rule of law, illegal wiretapping has returned to Colombia,” Barbosa stated.
Petro denied any government involvement in the wiretapping and offered support to any related investigation.
The House of Representatives announced on Monday it would suspend the processing of the social reforms presented by the government, which is a hard blow for Petro since he came to power promising major changes with these health, labor and pension reforms.
