The US government and Ecuadorean authorities are conspiring to “take down” Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro after leaving office, according to a recording leaked to Spanish newspaper El Pais.
In the recording, an Ecuadorean official discusses a “special task force backed by the US Embassy” in Quito that seeks to revoke outstanding extradition requests for drug lords from the border region and convince them to testify against Petro.
So my job is to go to Interpol to have those alerts removed… because the gringos want to catch them—they want to catch one of these guys and make him sing against Petro. You get what I mean? We’re not really going to get involved in that, but the gringos are.
Anonymous Ecuadorean official
The conspiracy would be in retaliation of the president’s refusal to extradite a commander of drug trafficking organization “Comandos de la Frontera,” which is negotiating a possible voluntary surrender to justice.
US President Donald “Trump’s beef is that they didn’t extradite him the guy from the Commandos,” the Ecuadorean official explained.
The task force was given three months to gather evidence so that “when the term [of Petro’s presidency] ends” in August, “they’re going to come down on him with everything they’ve got, man,” said the official.
“They’ll throw in social media, journalists, everything” to justify criminal charges against Petro
The conspiracy would count on the support of bribed military officials “who are completely at odds with the government,” according to the Ecuadorean official.
There’s a group of military personnel over there in Colombia who are completely at odds with the government. They’re even being paid—and paid well—to turn against the guy.
Anonymous Ecuadorean official
The audio was leaked by Colombian intelligence agency DNI weeks after US media reported that the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) designated Colombia’s president as a “priority target.”
Petro has been among the most vociferous critics of US foreign policy in Latin America since before Trump took office and has been put on a blacklist for drug traffickers for his refusal to militarize his country’s efforts to curb drug trafficking.
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