After the massive demonstrations on Sunday, April 21 against the Petro Government, the president responded that his opponents want to carry out a coup d’état and that, in addition, they want to “kill the president.”
And the president’s words came after journalist Felipe Zuleta Lleras said in his X account that the only way to “remove” Gustavo Petro from power was in the same way that Gustavo was removed Rojas Pinilla. “The only way to remove Mr. President @petrogustavo is with a civic strike like they did to Rojas in 1957. It is to shut down the country. Lords of the banks, transporters. Supermarkets. Please save the country,” commented Zuleta.
To which the president quickly replied through the same social network that “they cannot think about democracy,” he continued his reply by pointing out that his detractors are motivated solely by hatred. He argued that these opponents deny the legitimacy of their mandate, ignoring the electoral results and contemplating extreme actions, such as a coup d’état, due to their inability to accept the success of historically marginalized sectors, in particular, the poor and young populations.
Within their response, in addition to saying that they wanted to “kill the president,” they assured that the way to confront said hatred was for there to be more people in the streets saying.
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“The democratic project is in danger. What they want here is to overthrow the popular government and kill the president. The counter to this hatred is more people in the streets deciding. “Colombia will no longer be one of the murderers and drug traffickers, they will not bloody its people and its young people,” the president replied through his X account.
In fact, in the publication of journalist Zuleta, in addition to President Petro, the Minister of the Environment, Susana Muhamad also responded saying “here is the “democracy” that they profess painted.” Even Margarita Rosa de Francisco made a reply to said post commenting that: “What a cool democracy.”
The two of them were joined by the influencer close to the national government, Beto Coral, who made the following comment: “I thought Felipe won the elections in a democratic way.”
Regarding President Petro’s publication saying that they wanted to carry out a coup against him, it was responded to by the councilor of the Democratic Center, Daniel Briceño, who asked him: “By poor people, do you mean the Torres Clan?”
And in reference to what Daniel Briceño said, a report by La Silla Vacía revealed that the Torres clan, who are allegedly related to the financing of Gustavo Petro’s presidential campaign in 2022, would have obtained contracts worth 180,000 million pesos granted by the National Government.
The publication refers to statements by Nicolás Petro, son of the President, captured for anomalies in the financing of his father’s campaign. He revealed to the Prosecutor’s Office that Euclides Torres expressed interest in contributing financially to the campaign, anticipating that an electoral victory would allow him to access state contracts.
On the other hand, this is not the first time that President Petro talks about a coup against him. Well, on another occasion, on May 11, 2023, the head of state questioned the following through his X account: “Why are they conspiring for a coup d’état? Because they are terrified that we will end impunity. The truth scares them so much that they go to despair. They judicially hide what society already knows: the enormous corruption in the state and the genocide, the violence and terror unleashed on the people, are two sides of the same coin.” With Infobae