Colombian President Gustavo Petro stated on Tuesday that he escaped an assassination attempt several hours ago, which he claims occurred after months of warnings about drug traffickers' plans to attack him, LETA reports citing AFP.
According to the president, on Monday evening, the helicopter he was in was unable to land at its destination on the Caribbean coast due to concerns that unidentified individuals were planning to open fire on it.
“We went out to open sea for four hours, and I ended up in a place we were not intending to go, escaping from assassination,” Petro said at a government meeting that was broadcast live.
The president's statement about the assassination attempt came amid rising violence in the country ahead of the presidential elections.
Petro, who is constitutionally barred from running for a second term, claims that drug cartels have been plotting his murder since he took office in August 2022.
According to the president, figures such as Ivan Mordisco — the leader of the largest group that split from the former leftist guerrilla organization Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) after its agreement to disarm under the terms of the 2016 peace deal — are involved in these plans.
Many leftist politicians, including presidential candidates, have been killed in Colombia over the years.
Petro, the first leftist president in Colombia's history, also reported another assassination attempt in 2024.
