Jorge Enrique Botero

Correspondent

The newspaper La Jornada
Friday, August 9, 2024, p. 28

Bogotá. President Gustavo Petro was going to be the victim of a powerful attack on July 20, Defense Minister Iván Velásquez reported yesterday, who 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 various reports have emerged regarding possible large-scale explosions.

The scant information on the attempted assassination has been drifting into scenes bordering on the melodramatic, after the police reported yesterday afternoon that emerald businessman Juan Sebastián Aguilar had been killed by a sniper in the north of the city, where he was in the company of former senator Sandra Ortiz, an effective political operator brought to the Casa de Nariño by Petro since the beginning of his mandate and who shone in the execution of government initiatives.

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, Ortiz indicated that He was a friend of everyone, with 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, since this is one of the productive activities that contributes 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 Unit of the Presidency, 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.