Colombian President Gustavo Petro announced Tuesday that he had escaped an assassination attempt during a helicopter trip the day before. An indigenous senator kidnapped in the middle of the day is now free and safe, the Minister of Defense also announced.

Published on: 02/10/2026 - 9:30 p.m. Modified on: 02/10/2026 - 10:22 p.m.

Was the President of Colombia almost assassinated? In any case, this is what Gustavo Petro declared on Tuesday February 10, claiming to have escaped an assassination attempt the day before, during a helicopter trip.

During a council of ministers broadcast live, Gustavo Petro explained that the helicopter transporting him had not been able to land as planned in the department of Cordoba, on the Colombian Caribbean coast, because his security team "feared" that "the aircraft would be fired upon".

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“We were at sea for four hours and I arrived where it was not expected, fleeing so that they would not kill me,” he explained. The left-wing president, in power since 2022, has been saying for months that armed networks linked to drug trafficking want to make an attempt on his life.

Increase in political violence

This alleged plot would include drug traffickers living outside the country and local guerrillas, such as Ivan Mordisco, the country's most wanted criminal who leads the main splinter group of the ex-Farc guerrillas who did not sign the 2016 peace agreement.

Cordoba operates the Clan del Golfo, the country's largest drug cartel, which announced last week its decision to suspend ongoing peace talks in Qatar, initiated in September with the government.

The cartel was thus reacting to the joint decision of Gustavo Petro and his American counterpart Donald Trump, during their first meeting in Washington, to prioritize military actions against three leaders of criminal organizations involved in drug trafficking, including Chiquito Malo, head of the Clan del Golfo.

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Gustavo Petro, the first left-wing president in the country's history, had already denounced an alleged assassination attempt in 2024. His announcement comes in the midst of an upsurge in political violence three months before the next Colombian presidential election. The Constitution prohibits the outgoing president from seeking a second term.

Indigenous senator released after kidnapping

An indigenous senator kidnapped Tuesday in the middle of the day is now free and safe, the Minister of Defense also announced.

Aida Quilcué, 53, had been kidnapped a few hours earlier in her stronghold, the Cauca department (southwest of Colombia), a coca production region controlled by guerrillas. She and her bodyguards "are doing well", Minister Pedro Sanchez said on X, without specifying the conditions of her release.

Many left-wing political or social leaders have been assassinated in the past in Colombia, including presidential candidates, victims of drug traffickers, paramilitary groups or the army.

With AFP

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