Colombian President Gustavo Petro survives assassination attempt
Colombian President Gustavo Petro announced on Tuesday that he had narrowly escaped an assassination attempt, hours after his presidential helicopter was unable to land at its intended destination following urgent security warnings of a plot to target the aircraft.
In detailing the incident that occurred Monday night, Petro explained during a cabinet meeting broadcast live that the helicopter carrying him was unable to land at its designated location on the Caribbean coast. The president indicated that intelligence confirmed the presence of armed men preparing to fire on the aircraft upon landing, prompting an immediate decision to change course.
"We had to head out to sea and fly for four hours straight until we reached a place we never intended to go, just to escape being killed," Petro described the harrowing ordeal. The president directly accused what he called "drug traffickers," indicating that this attempt was part of a series of threats he had been receiving for months.
A tense political context and a war on cartels
This incident comes at a time of escalating political and security tensions in Colombia. Gustavo Petro, who took office in 2022, is the first leftist president in modern Colombian history. Since assuming power, he has adopted a policy of "Paz Total" (Comprehensive Peace), which aims to end the decades-long armed conflict through negotiations with rebel groups and criminal gangs, rather than relying solely on military solutions.
However, this policy faced significant challenges, particularly in the fight against drugs. Petro changed the country's strategy from focusing on destroying coca crops (which harmed small farmers) to targeting large cocaine shipments and pursuing capital and money laundering, which led to a direct clash with powerful drug cartels whose financial interests were severely damaged.
A history of security threats
This is not the first time Petro has faced serious threats. During his election campaign, he was forced to appear at public rallies behind bulletproof vests and surrounded by heavy security due to intelligence reports of assassination plots. Colombia, the world's largest producer of cocaine, is embroiled in a complex internal conflict where the interests of drug traffickers intertwine with those of armed groups, making the presidency a precarious position, especially as the government attempts to dismantle powerful and well-armed organized crime networks.
