Colonel Oscar Dávila, “assigned to the security of the presidency of the republic, died by suicide,” the Colombian ruler said Gustavus Petro, via his Twitter account this Saturday.

The Colombian police officer committed suicide, the president reported, ruling out that he had been killed.

“It is not true that the colonel was found dead or that there were two shots in his body,” he added.

According to press reports, the police officer was involved in a scandal of illegal eavesdropping, conspiracy and blackmail that led to the Laura Sarabia, Petro’s right-hand man, and the then ambassador to Venezuela, Armando Benedetti, left the government.

After the theft of a briefcase containing thousands of dollars from the home of Sarabia, her nanny was eventually interrogated with a polygraph at the presidential headquarters and then her phone calls were intercepted using a false police report linking her to drug traffickerssaid the Public Prosecution Service.

Benedetti, a powerful politician who supported Petro in the campaign, and the former chief of staff shared the same babysitter and accuse each other of conspiracy.

pressure and suicide

The left-wing president pointed out that Dávila “near his house sent his driver for a bottle of water, he left his gun on the seat and when he returned for him, he committed suicide by shooting himself to sleep with the gun that he had left behind.” .

He stressed that “there are no more shots in the place” and that before committing suicide, the officer had “received several calls from the press”.

According to local media and the lawyer of a police officer involved in the case, Dávila received pressure from the prosecution during the political scandal.

Petro explained that Dávila’s job during the presidency was “to secure the places” where the president was present, bearing in mind that he is one of the most threatened men in the country.

During several weeks of media revelations about the matter, Petro’s presidential campaign was marred by an alleged irregular funding of $3.5 million, which is also under investigation.

Petro assures that the allegations are “a soft blow” against his government and that “not a single dirty peso has entered his campaign”.