US recalls Chargé d’Affaires in Bogotá over Colombian government’s ‘baseless statements’

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has recalled John T. McNamara, his chargé d’affaires ad interim in Colombia, for consultations. McNamara will travel to Washington following “baseless and reprehensible statements from senior Colombian government officials.”

In addition to the recall, the statement continues, the United States “is pursuing other measures to make clear our deep concern over the current state of our bilateral relationship.”

In response, Colombian President Gustavo Petro announced that he will also recall Colombia’s ambassador to the United States, Daniel García Peña. “Daniel must come to update us on the progress of the bilateral agenda I committed to at the start of my government,” he wrote on his X account.

Although Marco Rubio’s statement does not mention specific Colombian political figures, the news comes after EL PAÍS revealed secret audio recordings in which former Colombian foreign minister Álvaro Leyva claims to have met with U.S. lawmakers close to Rubio to seek support from the United States for a coup against Petro. These members of Congress are Mario Díaz-Balart and Carlos Antonio Giménez, both from Florida — the same state Marco Rubio represents.

“I was in the United States with a top-level guy: Mario Díaz-Balart. The Díaz-Balarts are the ones behind the Secretary of State,” says Leyva in the recordings. After the audios were made public, the two legislators have not directly mentioned Leyva but have denied any involvement in a coup attempt.

Before the recordings became public, Petro had already hinted at the coup allegations and to the Republicans lawmakers mentioned by Leyva in the recording. “So, Álvaro Leyva, tell Díaz-Balart this: that if he tries to overthrow the president of Colombia as a foreigner, the Colombian revolution will break out,” Petro said in a speech in early May.

A month later, in another speech in mid-June, he said, “A neighboring president says that Mr. Marco Rubio is organizing a coup against me.” That neighboring president was Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, who in Caracas claimed that “they have activated a plan to overthrow President Gustavo Petro. It is a plan being directed by Marco Rubio from the United States.”

However, after the audios were published this week, Petro softened his tone in a lengthy tweet. “The dangerous thing was not the U.S. Secretary of State: Marco Rubio, who was not really involved,” he wrote. But he added that “there is a coup in flagrante delicto, and it must be investigated, and the U.S. justice system should be asked to investigate it.”

The news came just hours after Colombia’s Foreign Minister Laura Sarabia announced her resignation from the government over a disagreement with Petro regarding a passport contract. According to Blu Radio sources, she will remain in charge until Petro appoints her replacement.

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