Bogotá .- The outgoing president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, will file a criminal complaint against Angie Rodríguez, a high-ranking official in his government whom he accuses of a “slanderous” attack, in reference to the corruption allegations made this Tuesday by the public servant 10 days before the president leaves office.
“I have decided to take criminal action against Ms. Angie Rodríguez for her way of defending her position based on lies,” the president expressed in a message on X, in which he added: “the attack carried out by Angie is slanderous and her response will be criminal action.”
The current situation in the employment relationship
Rodríguez, manager of the Adaptation Fund, an entity that executes disaster risk management projects, revealed this Tuesday in an interview with the radio station Blu Radio that his relationship with Petro deteriorated when he opposed last year the appointment of Juliana Guerrero, a 23-year-old woman very close to the president and without a university degree, as Deputy Minister of Youth.
“I told him: ‘No, Mr. President, because she is not a professional and therefore I cannot appoint her’,” stated Rodríguez, who at that time was the director of the Administrative Department of the Presidency of the Republic (Dapre), a position whose occupant is considered the president’s right-hand person.
That appointment was thwarted after it became known that Guerrero had presented a fake university degree, but he still remained in the Government handling various matters with Petro’s endorsement.
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As Rodríguez stated this Tuesday, the relationship between Petro and Guerrero “was not normal” due to “the influence she had on the Government.”
Fear for their life
Rodríguez, who has stated on numerous occasions that her life is in danger due to her denunciations, also revealed that she had a heated meeting with the president, in which, according to her, Petro insulted her and questioned her integrity.
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However, the president stated today that before appointing Rodríguez as director of the Dapre in May 2025, he did not know her, despite giving her one of the highest positions in the Government, and added that the official’s management in that department was a “disaster”.
“For strange reasons, she collaborated with sectors coming from paramilitarism, against which I have acted throughout my entire life due to its relationship with the genocide of the Colombian people and drug trafficking. I should have removed her, but my judgment regarding women who are heads of households prevented me from doing so, and I transferred her to the Adaptation Fund,” added Petro.
Reactions to the controversy
This scandal shakes the Petro administration in its final stretch, as he will hand over office on August 7 to the president-elect, Abelardo de la Espriella, who requested that all security guarantees be provided to Rodríguez.
People close to the president have reproached him for his defense of Juliana Guerrero, and even former senator María José Pizarro, from the Historic Pact, Petro’s party, stated yesterday that “the Guerrero sisters’ scandal is reprehensible.”
“I have supported you in 99% of your successes and failures. I have supported you even in the midst of your lapses. Today it is impossible to support you when you yourself told me that it is reason that is above the heart. That we should separate the personal from the political (…) Actions and mistakes must be acknowledged,” stated Mary Luz Herrán on X, who was Petro’s companion in the M-19 and mother of two of his children.
