He has recognized in judicial headquarters that he has no evidence that Gustavo Petro is addicted to drugs. To the question of whether he had ever seen the president of Colombia consume, the Foreign Minister said he had not done it in “any way”, as he heard in a video that the country has had access. “Absolutely not, in the clearest way,” he reiterated.
One of the most tense moments was lived during the exchange between Leyva and him. The lawyer asked Leyva to answer yes or not to his questions, to which he refused at first, but ended up doing it to “please.”
-Is it occasion to the president to consume any hallucinogenic substance? I answer me yes or not, ”Carranza asked.
-I don’t have to answer like this. I am witness to the consumption of un controlled liquor, as in Chile.
-That’s not the question. Cocaine, opium, marijuana? Answer.
“In the case of La Guajira there are witnesses,” Leyva insisted.
-No, you, if you saw it, Mr. Leyva, a brave man. (…). Did you see it consume drugs?
-No, not directly. Of course not.
“List, thanks, Doctor,” the lawyer acted.
A few months ago, Leyva made three letters public in which he assured that, that this prevented him from fully exercising his work and asked him to resign. Then he said to have evidence with which he supports his testimony, but in the Commission of Accusations of the House of Representatives, where he has had to go to declare for a public rectification required by the President, he showed no one and just read news appeared on websites, some of them without any credibility.
The 82 -year -old politician was a chancellor of Petro for almost a year and a half. He had to leave the Government for an administrative sanction and, from the outside, he tried to help Petro convene a controversial Constituent Assembly, in which re -election could even be included, now constitutionally prohibited. With the passing of the months they distanced themselves and Leyva,, plotted against Petro to seek their dismissal. He traveled to the United States, where he assured Republican congressmen who had the support of important opposition members and “armed and non -armed groups” to overthrow Petro “in no more than 20 days.” In Colombia there is no legal mechanism to dismiss a president in such a short period, so it is not clear the way in which Leyva wanted to carry out its purpose.
The interrogation of Leyva in the Accusations Commission was extended for more than four hours. Cell officials responsible for investigating the president and Petro’s lawyer insisted that he limited himself to directly answering the questions, but often dredriers and explained with profusion the protocol of international relations and even the philosophical theories of Spanish Antonio Millán-Puelleswho was inspired to write the cards.
-Doctor Leyva, “they asked,” you have affirmed that the president is in a serious health situation related to a high consumption of psychoactive substances. Do you have direct knowledge of this situation?
– What does direct knowledge mean? What do I have given teaspoons? How is the thing? Or have photos? It is some public, universal knowledge. Demonstrating the obvious is not easy, because it is facing everyone’s eyes. Naturally, I have to point out that I was forming as a result of what I knew what happened in Florence a publication, without evidence, he said that the president was arrested after a party in that Italian city]. I have talked with people who were there. People who saw him consume. But I can’t ask those people to take a picture. That is why I insist, we cannot be so parochial, let’s be universal because the president is the Head of State. I insist and request to validate my testimonies in face -to -face proceedings.
The Foreign Minister asked that an official travel to Florence, Santiago, Chile, Paris, Beijing and other cities in which the president has been absent from official acts or has not had “adequate” behavior, according to Leyva. With that, he intends to investigate and know “the truth.” However, the appearance served to clarify if he knew firsthand what he had denounced and, according to his statements, has not been able to reveal any data or evidence to support his words.
Basically, what Leyva has presented are journalistic information. At one point he put an extract of the podcast Thoroughlydirected by María Jimena Duzán. In a very unusual journalistic format, Duzán wrote a public letter in which he asked Petro to clarify whether he was drug addict. The president replied that it was to coffee. When Leyva published his letters, Duzán said that the ex -chancellor’s information confirmed what was published by her. Leyva now points to Duzán as one of his main sources.
Leyva’s letters also accused, which for a long time was Petro’s number 2, of being the person who supplies drugs. The politician did not repeat him in the commission when asked about who knew the health problems he blames the president. “It would be irresponsibility to go beyond what I can give as my own testimony,” he said. He insisted: “I’m not going to speculate. I don’t speculate.”
In one of the letters he wrote that Sarabia “satisfied personal needs”, a phrase that was considered very bad taste for what he hinted. “It has been misunderstood (the phrase). I ask for excuses for that mistake,” he apologized at the audience. Then he said that what was happening at Casa de Nariño, the presidential residence, “scares.”
Leyva said that he had seen “consume” Petro, but when he was asked what kind of substances he referred to, he replied: “Liquor.” He said that President’s addictions are “universal.” As an example, he read a tweet from Mario Díaz-Balart, representative of the Chamber in the United States, in which he recommends Petro to go to a rehabilitation center. However, everything that Díaz-Balart has heard in this regard is what Leyva himself has told, as confirmed by this newspaper. Having the support of this congressman was, for Leyva, a way to reach Marco Rubio, the Secretary of State, and, therefore, to Donald Trump, the president. In the White House, according to Republican sources, they did not pay any cases to the plan proposed by the Chancellor.
Later, they demanded more concretion.
-Who said or confirmed about drug use? Do you have any name that can give to this commission that allows us to verify that statement?
“(…) I have no way to enrich or increase testimony,” says Leyva. I have no photos, I have no recordings. I haven’t gotten into a bed for pichonear to the president. In no way, when he lost he went behind him to take a photograph or recording.
In the appearance, Leyva mentions the trip they made together to Paris in June 2023. There, he said, he discovered that the president “was a drug addict”, since he was absent for 48 hours. Sources close to Petro assure that the president was with his daughter and granddaughters, and that he also met with Juan Carlos Florián, an adult film actor who will now be appointed Minister of Equality. At all times, according to these sources, he was accompanied by French gendarmes.
The former chancellor also referred to a visit in Chile in which, according to him, Petro drank too much and had to be treated by some waiters. The president’s environment denies him vehemence and ensures that he took wine, but not in large quantities. And that later visited the house of the poet Pablo Neruda, a wish he had for many years. When communicating it to Gabriel Boric, the Chilean president put security and a vehicle to move.
At Casa de Nariño, they call a traitor to Leyva and throw him in face to try to benefit his son, who appeared in Santiago, Chile without being invited. They remember that he was the official who most insisted the president who knew the way to re -elect. Petro replied that he was not interested, according to this version. They also remember that, as soon as he was suspended from his position, Leyva went to the president’s office and asked him to disobey the attorney who had sanctioned him for the issue of passports. “The president refused to do so, he told him that it was not possible. From there comes the entire inch and lies against him,” they say.
