President Petro claims that former Foreign Minister Leyva spoke with the ELN in Venezuela: "What he has is rage, oligarch."

This Friday , Colombian President Gustavo Petro spoke at a government event in Tibú, a municipality in the department of Norte de Santander. There, he asserted that former Foreign Minister Álvaro Leyva had spoken with the ELN guerrilla group.

The Colombian head of state took the microphone to say: "We made the commitment to Catatumbo and whatever happened to me, whether they put me in jail or, as Leyva wants, they put me down with the drug traffickers."

Furthermore, the president, who was not only addressing the municipal public but also his cabinet, added: " Leyva also spoke with the ELN in Caracas with others, not to see how we can make peace, but to see how we can overthrow the president. What he has is rage, oligarch."

For weeks now, a new battle has been brewing in the Casa de Nariño (Narino Palace of Congress). This time, it's being led by Colombian President Gustavo Petro and his former Foreign Minister, Álvaro Leyva.

It all began when Leyva sent the head of state a letter in mid-April, in which he mentioned that the Colombian president had "problematic substance use."

"The memories I still have fresh from episodes that occurred when I was the first witness still cause me unease and confusion ," Leyva said in the letter.

He then delved into the events that allegedly occurred during the state visit to France: "One of them, the occasion when you disappeared for two days in Paris during an official visit. As if French intelligence were incompetent not to have known your whereabouts."

The former foreign minister described the situation in Paris as "embarrassing moments for me as a person and as your foreign minister. And even more so when I learned where you had been." He stated that he had heard of similar incidents in the past , but "it was in Paris where I was able to confirm that you had a drug addiction problem."

In response to these remarks from the former foreign minister, President Petro responded:

"He says he wanted to talk to me. I never knew he wanted to talk to me. The Attorney General's Office kicked him out, what's my fault? But he's putting the blame on me. But these aren't the antics of a crazy, decrepit old man, who's nursing the wound that he couldn't continue being chancellor, or his son. It should be known because it's not the old man's fault. What came out today isn't gossip, it's a conspiracy," the president said at an event at the Casa de Nariño.

The head of state added that the plot he's talking about isn't national. "It's not Colombian, even though there are Colombians. Therefore, it's extremely dangerous because it's an attack on Colombia's national sovereignty (...) The things he's supposedly denouncing, which any journalist with half a brain should see, how absurd! How they're evidence of what ? Drug addiction? I'm a revolutionary; I don't let myself be enslaved. Sometimes, I even have problems with women because of that, in my personal life."

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