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“Laura must be defended,” say the people around Gustavo Petro these days. The president, according to the sources consulted, is not going to let Laura Sarabia, his number 2, fall, despite the fact that for a week there has been speculation that his brother has used her name to offer public posts in exchange for commissions. The crisis in his closest circle has arisen for Petro at a time when he is planning a major government reshuffle with which he intends to give impetus to his next two years in office. He is overcome by the feeling that many of his ministers have not achieved the changes that he would like. He does not blame them, he says, they have faced a lot of resistance, they have not been allowed to modify things – always according to the president’s vision. But they have not achieved what was asked of them and they have to give way to others with renewed energy.
This remodeling of the Government has been agreed upon with Sarabia, who has brought together great power since he returned to the Government after leaving due to a scandal with the nanny who took care of his son. She is the voice and eyes of the president. When Sarabia left through the Palace door almost a year ago, Petro tried to replace his figure with Carlos Ramón González, a politician who had belonged, like him, to the M-19 guerrilla. It was a failure. No matter how hard he tried, González couldn’t do all the simultaneous tasks that Laura took care of. Petro, desperate, left her agenda in her hands again and little by little Sarabia took her place again until he returned to the office next to Petro’s, literally. Losing her would be a great shock for the president. His public life rests on it, his interaction with the world, but also his private, domestic life. Sarabia can negotiate a reform with some congressmen by phone and at the same time request a car to pick up the first lady via chat.
Sarabia has been rained by sharp shots for a week. A young communicator named Alejandro Villanueva recorded in a video some suspicions that were circulating on WhatsApp about the supposed rich life that Sarabia’s brother is now leading, overnight. He added data from other sources that support that complaint. The journalist María Jimena Duzán, who weeks before had said that the president’s right hand and his advisors removed and placed charges according to their convenience, joined in with a series of public questions in an article for Cambio magazine (“Is it true that you fire officials and ministers who try to investigate what you do?; “Do you find it acceptable that your brother Andrés uses the power you have to benefit as a lobbyist?”). Vicky Dávila, director of Semana, picked up Villanueva’s complaints and added to the suspicions of corruption in Petro’s immediate environment.
The pressure, therefore, is very strong. However, the president’s instruction is that it is time to defend Sarabia’s honesty. “He’s not going to take her away from him,” says someone from the president’s inner circle. The origin of all these suspicions are internal, they come from the Government itself, Petro believes. Sectors consider Sarabia to be a usurper of power, who was barely a teenager when Petro was mayor. At that time many people supported him and made him become president, but now it is only them who surrounds him. A few days after those articles about her brother were published, wrote in X: “My honest work is the answer to the scoundrels that circulate on WhatsApp chains. Businessmen and unions know that I have no intermediaries and they should know that offenses in public and apologies in private cannot be accepted. There is no defense against the bad faith of certain opinion leaders. They have exhausted the infamy. Once again, they do not give me the opportunity to express my opinion beforehand, for example, I would have sent them my resignation from the aforementioned company before entering the government last year. I answer for MY actions and do not doubt that I will answer questions sponsored, behind the scenes, by those who defend dark and corrupt interests. “I know I am an obstacle that needs to be removed.”
Petro had remained silent. Accustomed to reacting to everything, his silence drew attention. He broke it this Wednesday, with a tweet in which he attacked Duzán and despised Dávila: “I have respected María Jimena in her journalistic life, I considered her a true journalist and victim of paramilitary violence. But following Vicky’s career is a path of mistakes and lies. Insinuating that I exchange positions in my government for advice is truly disrespectful to myself. Semana magazine already disrespects me to no end, but I don’t expect it from María Jimena. I know that “Mossad journalism” prevails. “They want to destroy Sarabia just to destroy the government and commit villainy and mischief.” The message is forceful: he does not believe the journalistic versions and is not going to abandon Sarabia.
The journalistic unions came out in defense of the journalists as they had done with Villanueva days before. Duzán even said that he was afraid of the president’s messages against him. Sarabia’s brother, however, has only sued Villanueva, although the lawsuit includes information that other informants have provided. Petro considers that there is an orchestrated campaign against his Government and that the flank from which they can attack him is that of Sarabia. In any case, he has asked that it be investigated and it be known if his brother did this behind his back. He believes 100% in her honesty, but he cannot put his hand in the fire for those close to him. Unless more compelling evidence comes to light in the coming days about her involvement in these corruptions, Sarabia will continue at the president’s side.
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