Former Colombian Foreign Minister Alvaro Leyva next to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Colombian Vice President Francia Márquez in Bogota, October 2022. Photo: X/@SecBlinken/file photo.
In 1947, Jorge Leyva Urdaneta publicly called for the assassination of Jorge Eliécer Gaitán during a conservative rally in Chocontá. “To win, we must kill the leader of liberalism,” he shouted shamelessly.
Today, his son is back in the headlines: according to Spanish newspaper El País, he is allegedly involved in a coup against Colombian President Gustavo Petro.
This Sunday, international media and agencies have reported leaked audio recordings showing that former Colombian Foreign Minister Álvaro Leyva attempted to coordinate the overthrow of President Gustavo Petro with Donald Trump’s advisors and that the country’s vice president, Francia Márquez, was also involved in the plot.
The recordings, held by Colombian intelligence agencies, refer to meetings with Trump’s advisors, baseless accusations against Petro, and a plan to install Vice President Francia Márquez in his place.
“History repeats itself: the same family, the same arrogance, the same contempt for democracy,” reads a Facebook post by an anonymous account that recover the history of the Leyvas with a photo of a 1947 news piece covering the incident.
Because the image is pixelated, part of the text was transcribed:
Leiva incited murder of head of liberalism
At the Conservative rally last Sunday—outrageous performance by the Conservatives.
Chocontá, September 22.—Bogotá.
Conservatives held the announced rally of their forces before speakers Jorge Leiva, Lucio Pabón Núñez, and Efraín de J. Quiñónez.
Through a loudspeaker, unnecessary given the small number of blue protesters, the speakers shouted insults against the Liberal creed and its leaders amid extravagant invocations of the Bible and the uncompromising principles of the Conservative Party, which they consider the key to national salvation.
Mr. Leiva, in exalted language, stated that if to achieve victory, it was necessary to kill the leader of the Liberal Party, there was no problem. The speaker said that just as it was necessary to kill Matteoti in Italy, the same had to be done with the Liberal leader in Colombia.
Mr. Pabón Núñez recommended the organization of Conservative phalanxes to oppose the Liberals.
Mr. Quiñónez said that the flag of the Conservative Party is identified with that of Christ, and that it must be defended with one’s life.
The scandalous demonstration ended with cries of “death to liberalism” launched by a group of excited young people.
Not the first time
This is not the first time that Leyva has participated in a coup attempt with the same actors. In 1997, it was against Horacio Serpa, but Juan Manuel Santos was the leader of the plot.
On that occasion, Leyva served as a bridge with Santos to contact guerrilla leaders and construct his prefabricated discourse of Colombian peace as a way to displace Serpa, who had a much more solid and authentic background.
Thanks to Leyva, Juan Manuel Santos managed to get close to the FARC guerrillas and used emerald tsar Víctor Carranza to get closer to the paramilitaries, thereby putting one foot ahead of Serpa in the idea of appropriating the peace discourse.
After making inroads into other key contacts to internationalize the peace process in Colombia, Santos embarked on advancing these processes without the government’s involvement, which was seen as a conspiracy against him.
Few believed this plot, even though Serpa detected and reported it. When it became known that Leyva and Santos were searching for paramilitary leader Carlos Castaño, the conspiracy began to unravel.
This plot was only possible thanks to the combined strategies of Álvaro Leyva and Juan Manuel Santos, who in little more than a month, managed to negotiate with the guerrillas, the paramilitaries, Gabriel García Márquez, three former presidents, an advisor to President Clinton, Felipe González, representatives of the Antioquia Union, unions, the church, and labor unions.
The latest conspiracy against President Gustavo Petro, of which Leyva is accused, only serves to confirm that experience often makes the difference.
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/JRE/SL
