Petro criticizes Colombia’s security forces over alleged assassination plots – Colombia News

President Gustavo Petro criticized Colombia’s security forces for their alleged failure to properly investigate conspiracies to assassinate him.

Petro turned on the security forces after the Bogota Police Department apparently downplayed the importance of two RPG-22 rocket launchers that were found at less than two kilometers from the presidential palace.

The rocket launchers were found in the Martyres district in February, but not revealed to the public until Saturday.

According to public television network RTVC, the rocket launchers were found along a road that is often by the president when traveling to and from the presidential palace.

In a response, the Bogota Police Department said that the rocket launchers were found in the trash and no longer useable.

Petro insisted that the police make more of an effort in investigating the matter and accused them of bungling the investigation into an alleged plot to assassinate him in Bogota on Liberation Day last year.

The president added that illegal armed groups planned a second attack on the presidential aircraft in October of last year when Petro was expected to speak at an international summit in Cali.

We learned of the introduction to Colombia of two Sam 16 surface-to-air missiles that were to be used at the Cop16 on my landing. I used clandestine techniques and entered Cali by other methods. One missile was located in the area known as “Los Paperos” and was surrounded by the army without locating it.

President Gustavo Petro

In his X post, the president suggested that the “Drug Trafficking Board,” a transnational drug trafficking organization that operates from Dubai, was behind both assassination attempts.

This drug trafficking organization “has strong ties to politicians, the prosecution and the police” in Colombia, said Petro.

My death was decided when I pushed for change in the Prosecutor General’s Office. The prosecution has covered up murders by the Drug Trafficking Board in Colombia, specifically the murder of the Paraguayan prosecutor [Marcelo] Pecci.

President Gustavo Petro