Colombia’s acting trade minister denounced poisoning attempt

Colombia’s acting trade minister, Cielo Rusinque, said that two adults and two children were hospitalized on Saturday after eating candy that was meant to poison her.

In a post on social media platform X, Rusinque added on Sunday that the victims of the alleged poisoning attempt had been released from hospital in Monteria, the capital of Cordoba.

According to Rusinque, one of her bodyguards in Monteria warned her that local authorities opened a criminal investigation after doctors at the local hospital found poison in the candy she was given on Saturday.

Rusinque said that she was given the poisoned candy in Monteria, but forgot the package in her bodyguard’s car when she returned to the capital Bogota.

The bodyguard subsequently gave the candy to some of his acquaintances, who became ill after eating them.

The bodyguard who accompanied me to Monteria confirms me that four people are hospitalized for poisoning at the Clínica del Rio in Monteria. To these people he had given two pots of candy that they had given me and that had remained in my car. According to what I have been informed, this information is already available to the Police and the Prosecutor’s Office of Monteria because the substance found was poison that would have been included in the candy that they had given me as a gift.

Cielo Rusinque

President Gustavo Petro condemned the alleged poisoning attempt.

Defense Minister Pedro Sanchez said that the National Police and the Prosecutor General’s Office were investigating the incident.

Well before temporarily assuming the responsibilities of trade minister, Rusinque was hired by Petro to lead the Superintendence of Industry and Trade, a watchdog that monitors corporate crime.