“You’re not worth anything”, “You behaved like shit with me”, “I still haven’t treated anyone badly because I know how to do it”, “You don’t know anything about history”, “Now I’m threatening you son of a bitch”, “She acted like a daughter of a bitch after everything I’ve done for you”, “Idiot”, “Somebody like me ain’t screwed”, “Put your dick down, I don’t even answer. “If he shoots, we’ll all drown”, “You’re naive and inexperienced …”, “Laura, please, you play with professionals”, “You’re there for me, son of a bitch, for me!”, “silly ‘, ‘Of course you owe me everything, everything!’, ‘You’re a laughing stock’, ‘Idiot’, ‘Stupid’, ‘Your smaller than you are.’ ‘You were efficient at the things that came to my mind and now that nothing comes to my mind you’re being damn efficient at shutting down the government”, “Are you using me son of a bitch? Your world is ending.” , mine and everyone else”, “asshole”, “You son of a bitch can stick it up your ass because nobody is in that position except losers like you”.
The previous paragraph is a summary, albeit incomplete, of part of the audio recordings of Armando Benedetti sent to Laura Sarabia by Semana magazine. In this thousand-page storyline, the focus is mostly on illegal wiretaps, lie detectors, briefcases full of cash, campaign finance and even drug addiction. But there is one more point that catches one’s attention when listening to the almost half-hour audio transmission between the then Venezuelan ambassador and the chief of staff. It is the manner and the words with which Benedetti addresses Sarabia, who worked with the politician as his personal assistant for seven years before taking office. It’s important to note that this is one-way dialogue so far, as Sarabia’s responses or audios are not public.
The ambassador and the chief of staff, the protagonists of the biggest crisis the Petro government has experienced in the first ten months, are old acquaintances. Hand in hand with Benedetti, Sarabia gained her first professional experience. They were inseparable for years, although it’s hard to find such different personalities. He, costeño, excessive, explosive and eloquent. She, neat, a military man’s daughter, godly and discreet. Together, at his urging, they joined Petro in predicting an election victory that seemed unlikely and one he didn’t want to be left out of. And together they left the government on Friday, by order of the President, after an internal war between the two that threatened to take everything away.
In the audios, Benedetti repeatedly claims that he feels “mistreated” by Sarabia. Now they are no longer boss and sub, but he reminds her several times that everything she has is thanks to him. To understand this grudge, one has to go back to last June, when Petro won the Colombian presidency in the elections. By that time, the two had won a place in the heart of the candidate. Benedetti helped him open doors that would never have been opened to a leftist leader with a guerrilla past, while Sarabia meticulously organized her schedule even while pregnant. She had a great time with him, there was camaraderie and big plans for the future. With her he was sure that nothing could go wrong. When it came time to give them a government post, Sarabia stayed by Petro’s side while Benedetti was appointed ambassador to Caracas. It wasn’t a way to get rid of him, it was a way to keep him, but not so close that the lawsuits that pursued him endangered the government.
Benedetti considered it an exile and worked to return to Bogotá from day one. In the audio recordings, he can be seen shouting this urgency to Sarabia and blaming her for the fact that he’s moving on in Venezuela nearly a year later. The pressure on her is unbearable, threats and accusations. The guilt of not doing things well, being responsible for Petro’s popularity polls dropping. He reminds her of her inexperience and naivety, he calls her an idiot, he repeats that it was he who brought her to power. He calls himself “the savior” she should turn to to correct the course of a government Benedetti sees on the brink of failure. Sometimes the tone changes, he seems sad, then asks him to get back together and that the two could find success together again.
In a statement, Sarabia’s lawyers say: “She will defend herself against the outrageous and humiliating attacks she was subjected to as a woman by Armando Benedetti long ago.” It is suggested that this deal could come from before. “Laura was put under tremendous pressure that she wasn’t aware of. He must have suffered greatly and is suffering greatly,” the President tweeted in another form of support.
Newsletter
Analysis of current affairs and the best stories from Colombia, every week in your mailbox
GET THIS
Benedetti himself, who successively listened to his audios on the Internet on Sunday, tried to take the iron out of his words: “I admit that I treated her very badly. “Bad” is a saying because I speak badly and every transcription of every sound always sounds bad. But I treated her badly, I admit that I treated her badly. “I’m too impulsive, I don’t make excuses, but what she does, she does coldly and purposefully,” he told Semana. In her head she is cold and calculating, disloyal; while being an impulsive slob.
Apart from this statement, Sarabia has remained silent since Petro decided to go without the two, unlike Benedetti, who continues to use Twitter and the media to escalate the intrigue. That Monday evening he published a sentence that could remain in Colombia’s political history: “I was an integral part of President Petro’s current political project. However, not being satisfied with what suited me politically, I allowed myself to be carried away by anger and alcohol in an act of weakness and sadness. It sounds like a retreat, but nothing is written about Benedetti.
Subscribe here to the EL PAÍS newsletter on Colombia and receive all the latest information about the country.