Former Foreign Minister Álvaro Leyva (left) and Colombian President Gustavo Petro (right). Photo: Colprensa/File photo.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro has announced that he will file a criminal complaint against his former foreign minister, Álvaro Leyva, who is suspected of conspiring with officials of the US empire to overthrow him, a claim evidenced through telephone recordings.
In a message posted on social media this Wednesday, July 2, the Colombian president asked the government of the US entity to investigate Republican politicians in that country who have been in contact with Leyva planning the plot against Petro.
Leyva’s plan to overthrow Petro was revealed on Sunday by Spanish newspaper El País, publishing audio recordings in which the former foreign minister claimed to have met two months ago with Congressman Mario Díaz-Balart in the US empire, in an attempt to approach Secretary of State Marco Rubio and exert “international pressure” against Petro to be replaced [via an unfit procedure] by Vice President Francia Márquez.
“The parliamentary coup d’état evaporates for Leyva due to his own incapacity, because he denounced himself, with his own voice, through his own clumsiness, because hatred and greed always blind and always go against life,” the Colombian president wrote on social media.
“We have filed a complaint,” the president’s lawyer, Alejandro Carranza, told the press on Wednesday, “so that the president of the republic is recognized as a victim of the crimes of conspiring to cause sedition; that is, to try to interrupt the constitutional order and force President Petro to leave office in an anomalous manner.”
The legal representative also questioned the grounds for disqualification of the president and asserted that there is no evidence to support claims against the presidential office.
“The US government didn’t follow our request, and we must take into account the statements that one of the US congressmen has repeatedly made, that the president is an addict, that he’s sick, etc., etc. And what evidence does the country have? What documents have proven this?” the lawyer asked. “They don’t have any, beyond the words of a former foreign minister who was bitter because his son wasn’t appointed ambassador or foreign minister, and who said he was in some meetings substituting for the president, so that immediately shows their failings.”
Leyva was suspended from his post in early 2024 by the attorney general’s office, due to issues with a passport-issuing contract. In the leaked audio recordings, he suggested he has the support of Vice President Márquez, who has denied any involvement in the alleged coup plot.
#JUDICIAL | Ante @FiscaliaCol el presidente @petrogustavo denunció al excanciller @AlvaroLeyva por conspiración para delinquir con fines de sedición, traición a la patria, instigación a delinquir, calumnia e injuria agravada.
Habla su abogado Alejandro Carranza @HombreJurista pic.twitter.com/LwojwciZ7D— José Andrés González G (@andresGgaitan) July 2, 2025
Prosecutor’s office proceeds with investigation
The Colombian attorney general’s office will open an investigation into audio recordings revealed by El País. The institution appointed a specialized prosecutor to gather the relevant evidence, as well as recent complaints filed by other individuals named in the case, such as Vice President Francia Márquez, who requested the opening of an investigation to clarify the facts.
“There is no possibility that I would lend myself to conspiracies,” Vice President Márquez said in a statement. “I am not driven by resentment or convenience, and to those who believe they can use me as an instrument of their ambitions, I say: you are deeply mistaken.”
President Petro has also asked Vice President Márquez to publicly and judicially explain the allegations implicating her in this coup plot. “All the people [Leyva] names there, whether what he says is true or not, should provide explanations, not just in public, but before the courts,” Petro said on Monday.
Colombia: Álvaro Leyva’s Father Instigated Assassination of Jorge Eliécer Gaitán
Petro threatened by the far-right
President Petro stated during the press address on Wednesday that a coup d’état is being carried out against him. While this is not the first time he has said this, it is the first time there is conclusive evidence to support it.
As is often the case with conspiracies against left-wing governments, the names of US colonial officials implicated in the plot have begun to emerge, leading the Colombian president to ask the government of the US empire to explain these allegations.
Petro, as the first progressive president in Colombia’s history, has been an easy target for attacks from the far-right, which is very powerful in the country, as well as from sectors of the left that disagree on how to govern a country marked by internal war and corruption.
Next year, Petro’s term will end. He has said he will not seek re-election, but has asked his constituents to vote for an option that would prevent the return of the conservative far-right.
As his presidential precedents have done in Colombia, he is forced to leave the task of peace unfinished, which had been one of his greatest commitments as a candidate. Upon taking office, Petro announced a policy of “total peace,” attempting to negotiate or offer justice to all these groups and gangs.
For just over a year, there was an apparent understanding between the government and the National Liberation Army (ELN), the last major Latin American guerrilla group, which has been crumbling since late 2023.
After attempting to negotiate with the ELN, the president, in an interview with EFE, said that he believed the group had become involved in drug trafficking, and that this made it “unable to understand the need for peace and social and economic transformation.”
During his three years in office, Petro has preached his defense of the environment and the fight against climate change at every conference, summit, and global forum, evidencing the fact that “free markets” under neoliberalism condemned Colombia for decades to being a “fossil fuel and cocaine exporter.”
(Últimas Noticias) by Randolf Borges with Orinoco Tribune content
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/JRE/AU
