Police vs. bodyguards: Documents reveal flaws in the presidential family’s security plan

EL PAÍS has seen documents from a process that is advancing in the Attorney General’s Office regarding a dispute between the Police and some bodyguards of the National Protection Unit (UNP) due to apparent failures in the security arrangements for the presidential family. These files contain multiple disciplinary complaints filed by those in charge of maintaining security at the Casa de Nariño. The documents reveal, for example, that Captain Paula Andrea Russi, head of protection for Sofía Petro, warned in January of this year that some of the bodyguards’ behavior “represents a risk to the life and integrity of the daughter of the President of the Republic.”

The allegations have become particularly relevant since it was revealed that the First Lady, Verónica Alcocer, and the director of the Administrative Department of the Presidency (Dapre), Laura Sarabia, had asked to remove some of their bodyguards from their security detail. The director of the Protection Unit, Augusto Rodríguez, one of the men closest to President Gustavo Petro, denied that there were requests to change the bodyguards of the presidential family.

However, the documents analyzed by the Attorney General’s Office show that Rodríguez was aware, since the beginning of the year, of the disagreements with some of the men assigned to protect the presidential family. On January 29, 2024, a letter signed by Lieutenant Colonel Carlos Feria, head of presidential protection, arrived at the office of the head of the UNP, informing him that some behaviors of the bodyguards assigned to Sofía Petro Alcocer, 22, are putting her safety at risk. In addition, the documents in the possession of this newspaper speak of a complaint for alleged gender discrimination by bodyguard Jhon Fredy Salazar towards Captain Russi, head of protection for the president’s daughter.

The complaints filed against Salazar indicate that he “made use of the vehicles assigned to the security scheme at his own discretion, without informing the undersigned [Russi] of the activities they carry out, including, for some movements that are part of Miss Sofia’s scheme, transporting bodyguards belonging to other schemes without the proper authorization.” The documents, filed by the captain, were addressed to the coordinator of protection of the presidential family, the Attorney General’s Office, the UNP and the companies Alliance Risk & Protection LTDA and the Temporary Union Protection and Life, companies in charge of outsourcing the bodyguard contracts.

Another of the alleged irregularities is related to non-compliance with work schedules by Sofía Petro’s bodyguards. One of the cases reported occurred on January 19 of this year in the municipality of Sincelejo, Sucre. According to the complaint, that day, at around 10 pm, the three bodyguards in charge of protecting Sofía Petro did not provide the vehicle for her return. With this action, according to the captain, they affected the service and “put the safety of the beneficiary of the measures at risk because, if a special situation were to arise, there were no logistical means to react to an emergency or eventuality.”

That day, when the captain noticed that the daughter’s bodyguards had not provided their service, she also explained that she had to transport her in a vehicle that did not correspond to her schedule and rely on the logistical capacity of the bodyguards of her sister, Antonella Petro Alcocer, 15 years old. “In this way I made the trip, guaranteeing security and arriving at the destination without incident,” she wrote. In her report she also mentioned that the bodyguards arrived at the place at around 10:20 p.m. “without any justification or argument for their delay (…) ignoring the security context.”

In the same complaint, Captain Russi of the Police reports that, one day after these events, the escorts would have removed the armored vehicle assigned to Sofia, supposedly, without justified cause. “They did not leave any vehicle at the place,” she pointed out. And three days later, the head of the scheme warned that, during a transfer to the House of Illustrious Guests, the head of the escorts informed her that they would not assist her in that trip. “Mr. Jhon Salazar, answers me the following: ‘Paula, good evening, tomorrow the UNP personnel are not summoned, so that you are aware.”

Asked by thi
s newspaper, Sofía Petro Alcocer replied that she spends only a few days a year in Colombia and that she is not aware of the complaints about her protection scheme. “There is not much time to find out in depth what is happening,” she said. As of the publication of this article, the head of her scheme, Captain Paula Russi, had not responded to this newspaper.

In this case, on January 27, the president’s protection coordinator and his family filed a memorandum with Augusto Rodríguez, the director of the UNP, warning of all the irregularities that the bodyguards were apparently incurring in. On February 6, the company Alliance Risk & Protection summoned the bodyguard Jhon Fredy Salazar to a discharge hearing, and opened a labor disciplinary process against him. It was not the first time that he had been called to attention by the company. On September 4, 2023, he had already had a diligence of this type due to calls to attention by those in charge of the presidency’s security. EL PAÍS also consulted the accused bodyguard, but he did not answer any questions.

The defense of the escorts

On June 26, 2024, a document arrived at the offices of the Attorney General’s Office in which three UNP bodyguards complained about alleged overstepping of functions by several officials: the head of security for the Presidency, Colonel Carlos Alberto Feria; the coordinator of protection for the president and his family, Jhonatan Alfonso Bernal, and other members of the Police, such as Lieutenant Kelly Daniela Lozano. In that document, they claim that they are not subordinates of the National Police, but are hired through temporary companies, and say that their right to work is being violated.

Much of the documents were devoted to refuting the claims of the police officers in charge of presidential security who have complained that the bodyguards are not doing their job. They specify, for example, that the statements sent by Major Jonathan Alfonso Bernal in which he allegedly warns that they do not provide any protection services to the first lady, Verónica Alcocer, are false.

They also warn that the police officers, assigned to the protection department, have signed documents requesting the removal and disassociation of the bodyguards from the presidential family’s scheme. “They send reports lying and violating the police code of ethics that they themselves promulgate in each of their daily duties as police officers.” According to this complaint, the same Police has raised requests for the bodyguards to be dismissed from the UNP. This complaint contradicts the statements of director Augusto Rodríguez, who has publicly said that he has not received requests against the men who provide security for the Casa de Nariño.

One of the most serious sections of the document relates that, since the beginning of June of this year, Colonel Feria, Laura Sarabia and Verónica Alcocer, according to them, have met at the Nariño Palace “to discuss issues of smear campaigns via WhatsApp.” Although the documents do not include any evidence, they do echo the information that has circulated on the networks and in the media in recent days. “We reiterate that as escorts we do not have any intelligence information,” and they distance themselves from the functions of the uniformed officers. “Unlike the Police, who have all the logistical means to carry out all kinds of investigations, monitoring or interceptions,” they write.

The truth is that, although the alerts about possible irregularities in the security of Petro’s family have escalated to all entities – since September of last year – no entity has prioritized the issue. While the UNP clarifies that the contracts are outsourced and that private companies are in charge of hiring the bodyguards, Rodríguez’s explanations, before public opinion, have been focused on moving the spotlight away from it by denying that it is a political issue. “There is no internal war,” he maintains.

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