Colombian President Gustavo Petro issued a direct challenge to U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, whom he accused of attempting to interfere in Colombia's internal politics and seeking his imprisonment.
"If you're going to arrest me, let's see if you can," said Petro to hundreds of young people during the inauguration of the first educational multi-campus in the La Sultana neighborhood, in eastern Cali.
In a defiant tone, the Colombian president openly questioned the warnings of the Republican politician, known for his hardline stance against leftist governments in Latin America.
"And then I have to tell Mr. Marco Rubio, brother, if you’re going to put me in jail, let’s see if you can. If you want to put me in the... what is it called? The orange jumpsuit? Go ahead and try. But this people will not kneel down," he said.
With this statement, accompanied by applause from his supporters, Petro was not only responding to Rubio's recent comments, but was also aiming to send a message of political resistance during a time of heightened pre-electoral tension in a country that has experienced decades of conflict and polarization.
The official went further by mentioning the Cuban origins of the former Florida senator: “His past hatreds, which I am not familiar with, and no Colombian is guilty of what happened to his grandfather or his father in Cuba.”
Cross accusations and an "outside blow"
Petro's words came after El Tiempo revealed that the president denounced an alleged plan to influence Colombian politics from the United States. According to that newspaper, the president indicated that several national leaders traveled to Washington to meet with Rubio and convey the idea that he would be allied with drug trafficking, with the aim of generating external pressures against him.
Petro mentioned specific names: the mayor of Cali, Alejandro Eder; the mayor of Medellín, Federico Gutiérrez; journalist and presidential hopeful Vicky Dávila; and former Minister of Foreign Affairs Álvaro Leyva. He stated that they were all part of a strategy to influence President Donald Trump through Rubio.
"Tell the president of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) that his money will not influence the elections in Colombia. The people of Colombia will not be bought," he warned.
The president accused the IDB, backed by the United States, of preparing lines of credit to fund local campaigns and buy votes with food or basic goods—“tamales, lechonas, bicycles, tiles”—a practice he compared to methods used by paramilitaries.
“We are about to enter a phase of the policy of indebted voting… whoever pays that debt, whether it is the citizen or the municipality, remains indebted. That is indeed a coup d'état.”
A few days ago, the magazine Cambio released documents that, according to the publication, came from the office of Republican Congressman Bernie Moreno.
The leak included an image of Moreno and Trump holding a folder with an AI-generated cover showing Petro dressed in a prisoner's uniform, accompanied by Nicolás Maduro.
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