Colombian President Gustavo Petro is facing accusations from his own government’s bureaucracy that he exploited 48 women hired through public service contracts in exchange for sexual relationships, with one official telling congress the women were brought on “just to be with President Petro.”
Carlos Andrés Ríos, director of Colombia’s Administrative Department of the Presidency (DAPRE), told lawmakers during a hearing last week that Petro oversaw a system that “systematically” used public contracts and salaries to control women in exchange for intimate relationships.
“We are going to prove to the Colombian people how the Casa de Nariño was unfortunately set up, organized, and tailored for something completely different — not to govern, but to party there every single day, bring in women,” Ríos said.
Petro pushed back forcefully in a statement posted to X on Sunday, denying he had ever used his office to obtain sex.
“I have never given out a contract in exchange for sexual relations. I would vomit on myself if I ever did such a thing,” Petro wrote.
The president said his office had funded aid programs for vulnerable women, including female heads of households and those engaged in sex work, but insisted that was entirely separate from trading contracts for sexual favors.
“Helping poor women, female heads of households, and those engaged in sex work so that they have different life options — as I have demonstrated in public administration through concrete and funded programs — is something very different from giving out contracts in exchange for sexual relations. No person who has participated in those public programs will ever be able to say that I have done anything of the sort,” he said.
In the same statement, Petro acknowledged that he had, as a young man, occasionally visited places where sex work was practiced, but said he stopped decades ago.
“When I was very young, I occasionally visited places where sex work was practiced. There, I experienced that paying for sex felt dirty to me, and I perceived the sadness of the men and women who attended those places. That is why I stopped visiting them decades ago,” he said.
The sex-for-contracts allegations surface amid a wider set of accusations against Petro involving misuse of public funds, depletion of national budgets and drug trafficking. Petro has characterized the entire wave of accusations as a politically motivated campaign driven by figures including President Donald Trump and Colombian political figure Abelardo de la Espriella.
“After attempting to portray me as corrupt and a drug trafficker — an intention expressed by people like Abelardo de la Espriella and Donald Trump, without being able to present a single piece of evidence of corruption or drug trafficking, because I have never stolen a single peso from the public treasury and I have fought for over two decades against drug traffickers, exposing their political ties,” Petro said.
The White House has not responded to a request for comment on the allegations.
Add comment