According to an investigation carried out by the public channel RTVC Noticias, a man captured by the authorities last May in the south of Bogota, with four firearms and abundant ammunition, was also implicated in the plan.

The individual also carried two rifles, one of them modified and equipped with a telescopic sight, a perfect weapon for a sniper, according to the news media.

Although at the time the authorities did not provide further details about the possible destination of the weapons or whether the man belonged to any criminal organization, the source said he was able to confirm that the weapons were part of the arsenal that had been transferred to Bogota by the so-called New Drug Trafficking Board to attack Petro.

In its report, the TV channel also revealed the testimony of lawyer Javier Mejia, who filed a denunciation before the Attorney General’s Office early in July. He had communicated it to the National Intelligence Directorate (DNI), to which he was informing all the details of the plan for over two months.

The Colombian Minister of Defense, Ivan Velasquez, confirmed last August 8 the existence of reports that warned about an alleged plan to attempt against the life of President Gustavo Petro on July 20, during the celebrations that would take place for the National Independence Day.

The next day, the president himself wrote on his social network X that he would ask alias Ivan Mordisco if it is true that he has allied with the self-styled New Drug Trafficking Board with clandestine headquarters in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, from where they commit crimes, to kill him with paid snipers.

The questioning refers to the leader of the self-styled Central General Staff, a dissidence of the extinct Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People’s Army (FARC-EP), against whom the Army has been conducting an offensive for weeks, mainly in the southwest of the country.

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