Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro said Monday that those allegedly implicated in a plan to overthrow the government should be called before justice.
While on an official visit in Spain, Petro called for investigations of anyone mentioned in the recordings in which former Foreign Minister Alvaro Leyva talked about getting rid of the president and replacing him by Vice-president Francia Marquez.
In the recordings that were published by Spanish newspaper El Pais, Leyva also said he wanted to involve far-right politicians like former journalists Vicky Davila and Senator Miguel Uribe in his alleged plot to oust the president.
All the people he names there, of whom I do not know if what he says is true or not, must give explanations, not only in public policies but also in court.
President Gustavo Petro
Marquez, whose relationship with Petro has been strained, said in a response to El Pais’s reporting that she would never take part in conspiracies or betray the president’s trust.
I have a clear conscience, a clear mind and a firm heart. I deeply respect the constitutional order, and within this, the figure of the President of the Republic as a symbol of national unity. I have expressed it in public and in private, and there should be no doubt: I have never betrayed or questioned the legitimate authority of the nation’s president.
Vice-President Francia Marquez
Davila published a phone call she had with Leyva in which the former foreign minister said that the former journalist was never informed about his plans.
In an initial response to El Pais’ reporting, the president said that the former minister’s alleged plot was a “barbaric act of vengeance” to Petro’s refusal to give a job to Leyva’s son.
Th president had been called out Leyva’s alleged coup ambitions for weeks, but was ridiculed over this by critics until El Pais published evidence suggesting that Petro had been right.
Weeks before the publication of the recordings, Prosecutor General Luz Adriana Camargo already confirmed that her office was investigating alleged “conspiratorial acts against the head of state that would involve a former official of his administration” based on recordings obtained by prosecutors.
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