At noon on Friday, June 2, and as a result of the scandal over the case of Marelbys Meza, the former babysitter of Gustavo Petro’s chief of staff, Laura Sarabia, who underwent a polygraph test during an investigation into the theft of seven thousand dollars from the house of the official; President Gustavo Petro announced the departure of Sarabia, as well as that of Armando Benedetti, who resigned from his position as Colombian ambassador to Venezuela.
On his Twitter account, the man from Barranquilla, who was a congressman of the Republic between 2006 and 2022, thanked the president for his confidence in assigning the embassy to him in order to reestablish relations with the neighboring country:
“I am grateful, President Petro, for the trust you gave me by appointing me one of the most important tasks for your government: to restore relations between Colombia and Venezuela. We did it!”
In the communication that he shared on his social networks, Benedetti began by expressing his admiration for the president since his days in the Senate, where he made repeated complaints against human rights violations in the country. This would have motivated him to join Colombia Humana during the 2022 electoral campaign that gave Petro the victory:
“I followed your political project and joined it with the full conviction that your thinking and vision were what our country needed”
Then he highlighted the responsibility that the president conferred on him to work on the reestablishment of diplomatic relations with Venezuela, after this country broke relations with Colombia in 2019 as a result of the controversy that broke out when Juan Guaidó proclaimed himself interim president of Venezuela and was recognized as such by then President Iván Duque:
“It has been a great honor to accompany you in these months of government as Ambassador to Venezuela. Reopening relations with this sister country that welcomed thousands and thousands of compatriots for so many years who, due to various circumstances, found refuge there, restarting such an intense and beneficial relationship for both countries were great achievements and satisfaction.
Gustavo Petro confirmed that Armando Benedetti and Laura Sarabia leave the Government
A few hours before Benedetti published his resignation letter, President Gustavo Petro had already confirmed that both he and Laura Sanabria were disassociating themselves from the Cabinet due to the Marelbys Meza case. The announcement was made by the president during a non-commissioned officer promotion ceremony at the General José María Córdova Military School for Cadet, in Bogotá.
“While the investigation is underway, my dear and esteemed official (Laura Sarabia) and the ambassador to Venezuela (Armando Benedetti) retire from the Government,” declared the president.
Sarabia, a former collaborator of Benedetti, called the ambassador to ask for his help with the situation. The foreign minister traveled with Meza to Venezuela to persuade her not to air what happened, but later the national scandal broke out about a clandestine investigation in which her former nanny was subjected to a polygraph at the Casa de Nariño.
As a result of this situation, the differences between the two government officials began, since one accused the other of leaking information to the media about the process and the irregular investigation, in which they accused Marelbys Meza of being a member of the Clan del Gulf, all in order to justify the “chuzadas”, according to the Attorney General Francisco Barbosa.
After Semana released the content of a chat between Benedetti and Petro, the same outlet released details of the meeting on Thursday June 1 between Petro, Benedetti and Sanabria. They maintained that the president showed solidarity with Sarabia, while the discussion with Benedetti was heated. Apparently, Petro lashed out at the ambassador, reproaching him for his behavior in the situation.
Both officials accused each other of sending private information to public opinion. Everything indicates that Benedetti was the one who made public the crossroads against Marelbys Meza, while Sarabia was the one who revealed details of the ambassador’s trips and private life in order to discredit him. with Infobae
