Colombian President Gustavo Petro said on Tuesday that he had escaped an assassination attempt hours earlier, after months of warnings about an alleged plot by drug traffickers to target him.
On Monday night, Petro’s helicopter was unable to land at its destination on the Caribbean coast because of fears that unspecified individuals “were going to shoot” at it, he said.
“We headed out to open sea for four hours, and I arrived somewhere we weren’t supposed to go, escaping from being killed,” Petro told a cabinet meeting broadcast live.
Petro’s claim comes amid a surge in violence months ahead of presidential elections in a country long scarred by conflict between guerrilla and other armed groups.
The president, who is constitutionally barred from seeking a second term, has said that a drug-trafficking network has been plotting to end his life since he took office in August 2022.
The alleged plot involves narcotics bosses and warlords such as Iván Mordisco, who leads the largest faction of dissidents that split from the FARC guerrilla movement after it agreed to disarm under the 2016 peace accord.
Colombia has a long history of left-wing leaders, including presidential candidates, being assassinated over the years.
Petro, the South American country’s first left-wing president, had also reported another alleged attempt on his life in 2024.
