Andrea Petro and Daniel Rojas, in images from their social networks.
The Attorney General’s Office has responded to the threats against President Gustavo Petro’s daughter, Andrea Petro Herrán, and the director of the Special Assets Society (SAE), Daniel Rojas. This Thursday he summoned the alleged perpetrators for questioning. This emerges from a statement from the public prosecutor’s office, you will hear them in the coming days. Both Petro Herrán and Rojas reported last week that they had received intimidating messages on social networks threatening them with death. After the allegations were revealed, the president asked Attorney General Francisco Barbosa to investigate the virtual attacks.
The scandal was revealed this Monday when Andrea published on her X account – formerly Twitter – that she receives daily threats on social networks. “Do you feel good sending me these messages every day? Does it seem normal and rational to you? They have so much hatred and frustration that they don’t even know how serious what they are saying is. “We cannot continue to normalize violence,” he trilled. A screenshot of the message sent to him on Instagram by the user, who identified himself as David Esteban Pardo, accompanied the publication. “I hope they kill you,” he had written.
I would ask the Attorney General to use computer forensic techniques and locate the actual person who wrote these death notices against my daughter. https://t.co/6nCUvvxbAC
— Gustavo Petro (@petrogustavo) September 5, 2023
The next day, the president defended his eldest daughter, who is 32 and has lived in France for years. X called on the Attorney General to “use computer forensic techniques and locate the actual person” who wrote “these death reports.” In the hours following her father’s request, Andrea spoke about the matter again. In an Instagram story, he revealed that he was making “appropriate complaints” about the threats and “extremely offensive comments” he had received. “Words have consequences,” he said.
The director of the SAE Daniel Rojas, an official very close to the president, joined the complaints this Wednesday. He revealed that he had received a comment on X that referred to the political murders committed by paramilitaries in Colombia. “I hope the paramilitaries return,” one user had written under a publication by Rojas in which the official discussed the need for health reform in La Guajira.
A few minutes after Rojas reported the attacks against him, the president called prosecutors again. “This person threatened to kill our officer Daniel Rojas. “I ask the prosecutor to find out his true personality and start the legal process,” he commented on a message from someone who identifies himself as Russy Millán in “X”.
Newsletter
Current events analysis and the best stories from Colombia, delivered to your inbox every week
GET THIS
This person threatened to kill our official Daniel Rojas, director of the SAE. I ask the prosecutor to find out his true personality and start the legal process https://t.co/Emm8jgihGs
— Gustavo Petro (@petrogustavo) September 6, 2023
The company, led by one of the president’s clearest political rivals, responded quickly. According to the official statement, a prosecutor from the threat group of the Department of Human Rights Violations began the investigation, and on Thursday she had already “identified and individualized those suspected of being responsible for the acts of intimidation,” according to the public prosecutor’s office.
Subscribe to the EL PAÍS newsletter about Colombia here and receive all the important information about current events in the country.