Bogota Mayor Gustavo Petro has been accused of slander after blaming rival political party Alternative Democratic Pole (PDA) for recent violent protests, reported newspaper El Espectador Monday.
Colombian PDA senator Jorge Robledo announced that he would file libel charges against Petro following a statement by the mayor blaming the Independent Revolutionary Labor Movement, part of the PDA, for instigating protests against the city’s bus system.
Ex-mayor Enrique Peñalosa, of Colombia’s Green Party, also spoke out against Petro Monday, accusing him of secretly orchestrating the protests in order to justify changes to transport contracts, calling the current Bogota government “peculiar.”
The mayor was using the PDA as a scapegoat for a failing public transport system, claimed Robledo. After protests Friday which virtually shut down Bogota and saw violent clashes between protesters and police, Petro said via Twitter that members of the Communist Party and MOIR were “behind the blockades.”
Robledo denied any PDA involvement in the protests, stating “I do not support the damage to public property and we do not agree with the destruction of a Transmilenio station.”
Robledo said his lawyers were studying the case and that the charges will in principal be for criminal libel and slander. He added that he would rather not press charges but could not see any other option.