This year, there were five news stories that were impossible to avoid, those that glued all Colombians to their television and cell phone screens, those that shook up the political landscape both for the left-wing government of Gustavo Petro and for the leaders of the right-wing opposition. These are, chronologically, the five moments that set the tone for the year 2025 in Colombia.
1. February 4: the almighty Armando Benedetti
The scene on the night of February 4 was worthy of a reality television, and many Colombians tuned into it as if it were an episode of La Casa de los Famosos. President Petro decided to televise a council of ministers for the first time, with a new guest in the cabinet: Armando Benedetti, a controversial former ambassador who returned to Bogotá to become his new chief of staff. “As a feminist and a woman, I cannot sit at the table of the cabinet and the progressive project with Armando Benedetti. And I am not going to resign either from the project or from the government,” declared the Minister of the Environment at the time, Susana Muhammad, in a broken voice. He then had to resign from the government. That night, however, she was supported by other members of the cabinet, such as Vice President Francia Márquez, or the former director of Social Prosperity, Gustavo Bolívar, who declared his love for the president. “I love you,” he said without a doubt. They too have already left. Petro closed ranks to defend Benedetti that night and all the following months. He called him a misunderstood fool. Criticism of the current Minister of the Interior, on the other hand, came from the inner circle. Even Petro remained silent when Benedetti was later accused of cronyism, as former Minister of Justice, Ángela María Buitrago, like the former tax director, Luis Carlos Reyes. In 2025, Benedetti was the protagonist of power.
2. June 7: assassination of Senator Miguel Uribe Turbay
The tragedy occurred around five o’clock in the afternoon on Saturday June 7. That day, a teenager shot dead presidential candidate Senator Miguel Uribe Turbay who was giving a speech in the Modelia neighborhood of Bogotá. The witnesses’ videos went viral in seconds: the moment of the shooting, the screams of the public, the unconscious senator in the arms of a bodyguard. The attack revived echoes of Colombia’s worst moments, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when four presidential candidates were assassinated. The politician, a young promise of the right, died on August 11 after more than two months of operations and care at the Santa Fe clinic. Even if the investigation by the Prosecutor’s Office indicates that the assassination was ordered by the Second Marquetalia, many questions remain regarding the intellectual authors and their motivations. The killing has instead reignited the fears of many politicians and supporters ahead of the presidential election in the middle of next year.
3. September 27: Donald Trump revokes Gustavo Petro’s visa
After Donald Trump arrived at the White House in January this year, one of his first clashes was against Gustavo Petro, when the latter returned a plane with deported migrants to the United States, and North America was threatened with tariffs on Colombia. Diplomatic channels were successful in easing tensions, and over time it became clear that the new president of the United States was no longer threatening the country with sanctions, but was indeed threatening its president. On September 27, the State Department revoked the Colombian’s visa for “urging U.S. soldiers to disobey orders and inciting violence.” This came after a demonstration by Petro in New York during which he asked the military not to obey orders that imply support for the Israeli government in its offensive against the Palestinians in Gaza. A month later, the US Treasury sanctioned Petro again, this time on the OFAC list, or better known in Colombia as the Clinton list. He claims, without proof, that the Colombian president has links to drug trafficking. A low point in the relationship which had not occurred with a head of state since the government of Ernesto Samper, in the 90s, then accused of having received money from the Cali cartel for his presidential campaign.
4. October 21 and 26: Álvaro Uribe Vélez acquitted in the false witnesses affair and Iván Cepeda left-wing candidate
A political story that has lasted for more than a decade has seen a dramatic twist. On August 1, a judge sentenced popular right-wing former President Álvaro Uribe Vélez to 12 years in prison, alleging that the politician sought to bribe witnesses who spoke out against left-wing senator Iván Cepeda. The country followed the case like a soap opera since the hearings and the first instance judgment were broadcast live. He was the first convicted Colombian president in recent history. But the sentence only lasted two months. In October, in a second instance ruling, the Bogotá Superior Court acquitted Uribe of all charges. Cepeda appealed to the Supreme Court of Justice to definitively settle the matter and, in the same month, won the electoral consultation to choose the left-wing candidate. Uribe and Cepeda have strengthened themselves, legally and politically, to compete for the presidency of 2026. The first with whoever is chosen, the second with the flags of Petrism.
5. December 18: two former Petro ministers in prison for the UNGRD corruption scandal
On May 7, the Supreme Court of Justice ordered the immediate arrest of former presidents of the Senate, Iván Name, and of the House of Representatives, Andrés Calle, for what constitutes the worst corruption scandal of the government of Gustavo Petro. The two men were accused of having received, in October 2023, billions of pesos in cash to contribute to the approval of reforms by the government of President Gustavo Petro. Money taken out of the UNGRD fund. Two months later, the Bogotá Superior Court ordered the incarceration of the former director of the administrative department of the presidency, Carlos Ramón González, for allegedly ordering the sending of UNGRD money to Calle and Name. González, Petro’s personal friend, is a fugitive in Nicaragua. And this December 18, the same Superior Court of Bogotá ordered the incarceration of former ministers Luis Fernando Velasco (Interior) and Ricardo Bonilla (Treasury) for having also offered gifts to parliamentarians in exchange for their support for Congress. In this case, they are accused of having sought to redirect public money from the UNGRD and the National Roads Institute (Invías) to the contractors designated by these parliamentarians. These are arrest warrants which tarnished the promise of Gustavo Petro’s government which assured that there would be no more corruption in his government. Justice ends the year affirming that corruption, on the other hand, was at the center of the Nariño palace.
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