In the message, which the head of state himself shared on the social network X, the communicator reported that during his bail hearing, a State Department lawyer described the president as “an enemy of the United States” and linked him to “alleged espionage activities.”

Coral told Petro he is “completely certain that this mobster-like figure, De la Espriella [the president-elect], will facilitate every mechanism—judicial and non-judicial—to try to curtail your freedom and dignity, and even put your life at risk.”

In closing, the activist urged the president—who has five days left in office—to leave Colombian territory before August 6, stating that he is needed “alive and with dignity to reclaim the country.”

Following the activist’s detention in Arizona, Petro had denounced him as a political prisoner in the United States and identified Secretary of State Marco Rubio as the person responsible for his imprisonment.

He noted that the communicator was arrested and beaten by the Washington administration due to the political support Rubio “gave to the defender of the Colombian people’s genocidal narco-paramilitaries—Abelardo de la Espriella, who suggested his arrest”—referring to the incoming president.

The president remembered that Coral—who sought asylum in the United States ten years ago due to the threat of assassination by criminal syndicates—is the son of a police captain who was killed during the operation to stop drug trafficker Pablo Escobar.

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