Ex-Foreign Minister Rocks Colombia with Claim Pro-Cocaine President Is a Drug Addict

Former Foreign Minister of Colombia Álvaro Leyva claimed on Wednesday that far-left President Gustavo Petro suffers from drug addiction in an explosive letter highly critical of Petro and key members of his inner circle.

Leyva, who served as Petro’s foreign minister from August 2022 to May 2024, published a copy of the four-page missive on his personal Twitter account. In the letter — stamped as “received” by the Colombian presidency on the afternoon of Wednesday, April 22 — Leyva expressed to Petro his concerns derived from the “direct knowledge that I have had and still have of situations and facts” that affect Petro personally as head of state and, “consequently, the country as a whole.”

The former foreign minister claimed in the letter that he “confirmed” Petro’s purported drug addiction problem during an official visit to Paris, France.

“The memories that are still fresh in my mind of episodes that occurred when I was the first witness still make me feel uneasy and bewildered,” Leyva said in the letter. “One of them, the time you disappeared for two days in Paris during an official visit. As if French intelligence was incompetent enough not to have known your whereabouts.”

“Embarrassing moments for me as a person and as your foreign minister; and all the more so when I learned where you had been,” he continued. “It pains me to say it today — late indeed — but for my little and stubborn knowledge of episodes of similar behavior of yours. It was in Paris that I was able to confirm that you had a drug addiction problem.”

Leyva continued by asking, “But what could I do? Surely, I was inferior. I should have approached you, helped you, assisted you in a timely manner. I keep inside me the regret of not having tried to reach out to you.”

“The truth is that you never recovered. That is the way it is. Unfortunately, your recovery has not taken place,” he emphasized.

Petro, a hardline leftist, has repeatedly called for the legalization of cocaine in public forums, including at the United Nations General Assembly. Most recently, during a cabinet meeting broadcast nationally in February, Petro described cocaine as “not worse than whisky.”

Leyva did not specify which of Petro’s official trips to France was the one in which he “confirmed” Petro’s alleged drug addiction. Petro, Colombia’s first leftist president ever and a former member of the Marxist M19 terrorist group, has visited France four times since taking office in August 2022 — visiting Paris in three out of his four official trips to France. 

Petro first visited Paris as president from November 9 to 12, 2022, meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron at the time. In January 2023, he visited Toulouse for a one-day trip and met with local authorities. Petro then visited Paris in June 2023 and extended his trip for an additional day citing an unspecified “last minute” meeting. In June 2024, Petro visited Paris again to accompany the Colombian delegation at the 2024 Olympic Games.

“Your disappearances, late arrivals, ineptitudes, non-compliances, meaningless trips, incoherent phrases, questionable company according to some, and other oversights of yours have been and continue to be registered, Mr. President,” Leyva wrote. “It is well known that you have fallen into very frequent times of loneliness, anxiety, depression, and other manifestations difficult to overcome, some of high risk.”

“All of this is known by people very close to you who love you, esteem you, who feel personally attached to you but do not know what to do,” he continued. “They know and know, but their bewilderment at feeling helpless overwhelms them.”

The former foreign minister also issued accusations against current Foreign Minister Laura Sarabia and current Interior Minister Armando Benedetti, two highly controversial members of Petro’s inner circle who have seen themselves embroiled in several scandals — including the 2023 “nannygate” illegal wiretapping and abuse of power scandal.

Leyva claimed that the pair has “kidnapped” Petro and pleaded to him to “disassociate yourself from those who have abused you, who have taken advantage of your very complex situation, and who have done and continue to do you terrible harm.” 

The former foreign minister also claimed that Sarabia, “satisfied some personal needs” of the Colombian president.

“I assumed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with an unprepared spirit, with the desire to show off in order for you to become a continental leader and a world hope. But I was surprised from the beginning that we could not sit down at some point to outline the foreign policy of the State,” Leyva said.

“When I went to look for you, Mrs. Sarabia… made me wait hours with the excuse that you would eventually see me. The same thing happened so many times that I finally understood that she was the owner of your time, of some errands of yours and that, in addition, she satisfied some personal needs.”

The letter did not elaborate on what “personal needs” Sarabia may be “satisfying.”

Leyva explained that it fell to him as top diplomat to appoint Benedetti as ambassador to Venezuela, a position he occupied from February to November 2024. According to Leyva, Petro asked him to talk to Benedetti as “he did not want to accept the designation” and instead allegedly aspired to work in an “important” position to Colombia, “perhaps as an eventual minister.” Leyva claimed in the letter that he understood from his conversation with Benedetti that he was “addicted to drugs.”

“As if I were aware of his personal problems, he told me that [psychologist] Dr. Miguel Bettin had him on the other side. I commented on it. I understood from everything he said that he was addicted to drugs. Bettin is a great professional with an enormous reputation,” Leyva said. “From my interview with Benedetti I concluded that he was a sick person. He’s still the same, Mr. President.”

President Gustavo Petro responded to the explosive accusations in a social media post claiming that his unexplained absences were due to his commitment to his grandchildren.

“The only way the press will publish letters is to insult me. It doesn’t just speak ill of the writer, but of the press as well,” Petro claimed. “Doesn’t Paris have parks, museums, and bookstores more interesting than the writer, enough to spend two days? Almost everything in Paris is more interesting.” 

“Don’t I have daughters and granddaughters in Paris who are far more interesting than the writer?” he asked.

Petro’s daughter Andrea Petro appeared to justify the alleged disappearance of Petro in Paris in her own statement claiming that he was “disconnecting” and spending “family time, privacy, calm.”

“In France, my dad found something rare in Colombia: family time, privacy, calm. His favorite pastime was spending time with my daughters, being a grandfather without distractions,” Andrea Petro’s message read. “Guilty of disconnecting him a little? I admit it. We were just looking for peace that isn’t allowed there.”

President Petro followed his daughter’s message with a separate statement.

“It’s become a sin for me to be with my family. Because several of my children and my mother live abroad, and because of the persecution we suffer, I have very few opportunities to see them,” Petro said. “I didn’t think that this fact would unleash terrible suspicions in the people I’ve shaken hands with.”

Petro did not elaborate on what “persecution” he suffers as the most powerful person in Colombia.

Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.