Recently, Armando Benedetti, the current Chief Minister of the Interior of Colombia, was added to Clinton’s list, which led to responses and actions of both an individual and institutional nature.
The US government headed by Donald Trump added Benedetti, President Gustavo Petro, Veronica Alcocer, the president’s wife, and Nicolas Petro, the president’s son, to that registry designating persons and entities suspected of being connected to resources linked to drug trafficking.
On various occasions, Benedetti expressed his disagreement with the decision to include him on Clinton’s list.
On the morning of November 24, the minister returned to the matter and expressed that “the hyenas came out to chase me,” referring to those who, according to him, took advantage of the situation to attack him.
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The head of the Ministry of Interior addressed this issue publicly in a message on his account Pointing out that he has been subjected to harassment and baseless accusations since his appearance on the list of the US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), as he put it.
Benedetti stressed that, despite the absence of concrete evidence or direct testimonies, he had engaged in a series of speculations and theories, according to him, without basis, which – according to him – were exaggerated by various media sectors that focused, as he put it, more on spectacle than on truth.
“Since I was included in OFAC, the hyenas have come out to chase me and surround me, and as always without evidence, witness or place for facts, inventing theories based on assumptions that are always denied, and the press does not care about that. They love the show.” The official affiliated with the administration of the government headed by the President of the Republic, Gustavo Pietro Orrego, wrote on his account on the social media network X.
In his statement, Benedetti used the character “hyenas” to refer to those who, he said, took advantage of his inclusion on the Office of Foreign Assets Control list to attack him, although he did not specify the people or groups he was referring to with this term. Over the past few days, the Secretary has shared his experience after being placed on OFAC’s registry, describing the personal and media impact this action has had on his environment.
With regard to this matter, week It stated that the Nariño Council requested guidance from the Senate on the appropriate procedure to ensure the payment of the monthly salary to those affected by international sanctions. The media explained that this type of procedure had already been implemented before with former FARC commanders, who faced similar obstacles in opening bank accounts and receiving their payments on a regular basis.
Regarding the difficulties in receiving payments after sanctions, the solution adopted was to make deposits via checks. Adelina Guerrero, Armando Benedetti’s wife, confirmed this in an interview with a magazine week This is the mechanism through which the family was able to obtain salaries.
Guerrero recounted the emotional impact and surprise that her inclusion on Clinton’s list had for those around her, highlighting that she had always viewed the aforementioned recording as directed only at drug traffickers and denied any connection between her and her husband and activities of this kind.
“It hit us hard as a family. We were shocked for days, and we were devastated. You can never imagine that. Ever since the Clinton list came out, I always had it in mind that it included drug dealers. I’ve never been involved with any drug dealer, and neither has Armando.”The wife of the Minister of the Interior explained at the time.
For his part, Minister Armando Benedetti addressed this issue on several occasions, and during an interview with weekHe talked about the reasons behind its inclusion on the Office of Foreign Assets Control list. Benedetti attributed this action to his stance in defense of “national pride” and President Gustavo Petro categorically rejected any connection to drug trafficking.
In his words: “They put me on the OFAC list without me attacking them. This shows that every empire is unfair.” He assured the media: “No one believes the story that I am a drug dealer, and I have not entered the house of a single drug dealer.”