President of Colombia Gustavo Petro addresses the Rally for Peace and Democracy in Cali. June 11, 2025.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro has denounced a plot aimed at ousting him and suggested a possible connection to U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
In a speech on Wednesday, Petro assured that he has information that would implicate leaders of the Colombian far-right in recent destabilizing maneuvers.
“A neighboring president says that Mr. Marco Rubio is organizing a coup d’état against me (..) I also have information and I know that a certain leader of the far-right in Colombia has been talking to the Secretary of State and I also know that there is a recording out there that I played for the Attorney General of the Nation, where a certain leader of the far-right in Colombia, who is not Uribe, I should point out, said that he is allied with drug trafficking, looking for people and forces in Colombia, trade unions and people and forces in Colombia and in the United States of the far-right to produce a coup d’état in Colombia. I want the owners of that recording to make them public in the newspapers in the United States. I wish they would. But here we are not afraid.”
The neighboring president he referred to was Nicolás Maduro, who identified Rubio as a central figure behind efforts to undermine Petro’s administration as part of a plan to usher in the return of the far-right in Colombia.
A day earlier, Colombian police reported 24 terrorist attacks in Cauca and Valle del Cauca, resulting in seven dead and 28 injured. Car bombs, motorcycle bombs, launched explosive devices, attacks with firearms, and propane bombs on public streets were used in the attacks.
Colombia took headlines just days before with the assassination attempt on Senator Miguel Uribe. The attack was followed by media coverage on right-wing news networks Caracol and RCN, which with the help of opposition figures, blamed Petro for the attack. Uribe was shot three times and wounded in the head.
An immediate investigation was ordered by the president who said he would also request that the U.S. embassy’s intelligence corps assists in the investigation.
The U.S. Secretary of State quickly condemned the attack on Uribe, calling it “the result of the violent leftist rhetoric coming from the highest levels of the Colombian government” and instructing Petro to “dial back the inflammatory rhetoric and protect Colombian officials.”
Petro also alerted of threats which were made against children of members of his cabinet, including his own daughter.
Other notable events occurred this week when Colombian opposition parties made a call to disavow the president, arguing that he couldn’t guarantee electoral security, while Colombia’s Senate leader requested a meeting with the Armed Forces without the presence of President Petro.
Colombia is scheduled to hold a referendum in August to approve the government’s labor reform bill.
