“Powerful attack” against Petro foiled: Defense Minister

Bogotá. President Gustavo Petro was to be the victim of a powerful attack on July 20, Defense Minister Iván Velásquez announced today.

Velásquez told the media that “since the breakdown of dialogue with the dissidents of the extinct Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) there has been a constant strategy that seeks to protect the integrity of the president.”

He added that he would not give specific details about the attacks, confirming that there have been reports of various kinds regarding possible large-scale explosions.

The information about the failed attack has been drifting towards scenes that border on the melodramatic, after the police reported this afternoon that the emerald miner Juan Sebastián Aguilar had been killed by a sniper in the north of the city, while he was accompanied by Sandra Ortiz.

An effective political operator, she was brought to the Nariño house by Petro from the beginning of his mandate and she shone in the execution of government initiatives for the regions. However, when the biggest scandal of this administration broke out, the official was caught in a web of rumors that led her to offer her resignation.

Regarding Aguilar’s death, Sandra Ortiz said, “In his region he was a friend of everyone, a businessman who received recognition from his region, he always had the support of other emerald businessmen and in the morning he had flown to Bogotá in the helicopter of the governor of Boyacá, Carlos Amaya.”

Although the volume of the emerald-violence duo decreased during the first half of the year, businessmen announced that they will not sit idly by, as this is one of the productive activities that provides the most employment to the national economy.

On July 20, the date on which national independence is celebrated, Petro arrived three hours late to the commemorative events, alleging scheduling and urban traffic problems, which was recalled today by Velázquez

The scene of this new scandal features the leading roles of the former director of the regional presidential unit, the sniper who killed an enemy with a well-aimed shot, a governor and at least seven congressmen, enough – analysts say – to open a new war front between Petro and the illegals.