MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Colombia: Petro says there are plans to overthrow him in the next three months

Petro said the plot against him was financed by the mafia (Pic AFP)

Colombian President Gustavo Petro Thursday said an “imminent” coup d'état against him was in the making. He warned that his removal from office was to be carried out in the next three months and mentioned that large sums of money were involved in his intended removal from office.

The country's first-ever leftwing head of state made those remarks during an appearance in the Colombian city of Armenia, the capital of the department of Quindío.

“A coup d'état is not the generals of the Police and the Army, looking for a way to take over the Palace and remove the president, no gentlemen, the oligarchs of the country are not so brutes. It is a Colombian-style coup d'état,” Petro argued while recalling the recent attempted military uprising against Bolivian President Luis Arce Catacora, and Pedro Castillo's impeachment in Peru.

Petro insisted that there was a plan to make an attempt on his life or remove him from office in the next three months. “They wanted to see if Salvador Allende's plan to block the roads to overthrow the president would be repeated, which is what they want to do: either the president dies or they overthrow him, the order is given.”

The former guerrilla fighter added that the plan against him had been “financed by the mafia.” He also explained that should he be removed from office, Colombia's next president would be Senate Speaker Efraín Cepeda of the Conservative Party and underlined that were it not for the popular support he has he would have been overthrown already. Many sectors in Colombia have already said that “we do not want Petro in the Palacio de Nariño anymore,” the sitting president also noted.

In this scenario, former President César Gaviria (1990-1994) said Petro's statements were “unfortunate” and expressed his solidarity with Cepeda. “The Liberal Party stands in solidarity with” Cepeda. “The Liberal Party works for the respect of values and the strengthening of our democratic institutions that are solid and guarantor enough to preserve democracy and the well-being of Colombians,” added Gaviria, who also served as Secretary-General of the Organization of American States between 1994 and 2004.