MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Colombia: official accuses Petro of mistreatment and the president announces legal action against her

Rodríguez, once one of the president's closest officials, said he began to distrust her during her tenure at DAPRE and pressured her to resign

The manager of Colombia's Adaptation Fund and former director of the Administrative Department of the Presidency (DAPRE), Angie Rodríguez, publicly accused President Gustavo Petro of subjecting her to mistreatment during her time in government, in remarks to a local radio station. The president responded that the claims are “slanderous” and announced he will pursue criminal action. The exchange comes ten days before the handover of power to president-elect Abelardo de la Espriella.

Rodríguez, once one of the president's closest officials, said he began to distrust her during her tenure at DAPRE and pressured her to resign. She said he accused her of being allied with paramilitary sectors and of other offenses, and said she interpreted as threats certain remarks about the president's past in the guerrilla movement. “I think he is my greatest victimizer,” she said, adding that she fears for her safety. None of those claims has any judicial backing.

The president rejected the accusations and made his own. He said he removed her from DAPRE over what he described as “a subordinate relationship to political sectors that are heirs to paramilitarism,” and attributed her recent dismissal to “her disloyalty to the government program and the use of public office for private ends.” He said he had kept her at the Adaptation Fund despite having lost confidence in her. Those allegations have likewise not been brought before the courts.

Rodríguez also repeated corruption allegations she had made over the weekend. She said she had blocked a maneuver to divert more than 1.2 trillion pesos, some $380 million, from the Adaptation Fund to the National Disaster Risk Management Unit. She argued those funds should go to flood-control works in the La Mojana region, scheduled through 2029, rather than to the response to the El Niño phenomenon. The accusation has not been independently corroborated.

The president had said on Monday that the official is on medical leave for psychiatric reasons. Rodríguez responded that she is experiencing depression and anxiety stemming from the situations she faced in government, called those remarks “unfortunate and stigmatizing,” and said her diagnosis does not affect her professional capacity. Petro said the decision to remove her is unrelated to that diagnosis.

The official requested protection from the incoming government. De la Espriella said on social media that he had instructed his future interior minister, Rodrigo Lara, and the designated head of the National Protection Unit to guarantee her security. Lara later said he gives “very high credibility” to the allegations given how close the official had been to the outgoing president. Rodríguez was the fifth of six directors to pass through DAPRE during this administration.