Petro, affected by the scandal of the struggle for power and wiretapping of his circle

Wiretapping, power games and a briefcase with missing money. Leftist Colombian government Gustavo Petro These days, he is immersed in a soap opera that tarnishes the image of the executive branch.

The protagonists of the unpleasant soap opera are the young head of the presidential cabinet, Laura Sarabiahis political mentor, Peter’s center-right ally, Armando Benedettithe ambassador in Caracas—both fired yesterday by Petro—and the one who worked as a nanny for their children, Marbelys Meza.

The scandal erupted when Meza appeared on the cover of the magazine last week Weekthe country’s most widely read, conservative-leaning newspaper, denouncing that he felt “kidnapped” after being taken to the basement of the presidential palace in January to answer a polygraph for loss of a briefcase with $4,000 in cash from the house of Sarabia.

The news spread like wildfire and many accused the government of violating human rights. Sarabia said that the money in the briefcase was from the per diems and legal commissions of the members of the Executive Committee, but his image was damaged.

The case became tangled this week after it emerged that Meza traveled to Caracas before the release of a report on a charter flight that could cost up to $5,000 that the employee did not have access to, and it was later confirmed that Benedetti knew about the report, which will leave Sarabi on bad reputation will be published.

And from there it started to be known, through the leaking of information in the media, such as Week, To change and Eartha power game that affects the image of the Government, whose rating fell to 34 percent, six points less than in April, according to a survey published yesterday by the company Invamer.

Benedetti, who was important to Peter’s electoral victory, connecting him with part of the elite that disowns him, would ask the president to return to Colombia as a minister. The leftist leader would agree to give him a place in his cabinet, entrusting Sarabia to articulate the formula.

The 29-year-old chief of staff, who worked only as an adviser to Benedetti until 2022, before surprisingly winning Peter’s favor, would delay the decision for fear that the former boss would bypass her in decision-making and speak directly to Peter, and that’s where he broke out war between Sarabia and the ambassador in Caracas.

The case got even darker in the last days when it became known that the phones of nanny Meza and another employee of Sarabia were tapped by the National Police ten days, reminding Colombians of the disastrous memories of illegal wiretapping during the government of Álvaro Uribe (2002-2010) that affected Petro himself. Meza was falsely identified by the agent as the cook of a drug paramilitary leader to justify tapping her phone.

The current president has denied that any wiretapping was ordered from within his government and says he is working to find out who ordered it, but this case tarnishes his image.