Colombia’s President Rants Against ‘Nazis’ and ‘Mossad Press’ After Getting Caught Wiretapping Judges

Colombia's President Gustavo Petro speaks to supporters during a rally, as his government
AP Photo/Fernando Vergara
Christian K. Caruzo

Colombia’s far-left President Gustavo Petro denied on Tuesday that his government engages in illegal wiretapping after several magistrates — including members of the highest branch of the Supreme Court of Justice — accused government intelligence officials of spying on them.

Petro dismissed the accusations as “fake news” and accused local media of being “Mossad press” for reporting on the subject. Petro compared the media to both the Israeli intelligence agency and Nazi Germany Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels. The Colombian president also urged Colombian Supreme Court Justice Jorge Enrique Ibáñez, who issued the formal denouncement that led to the ongoing investigations, to “stop falling into naiveté that Nazi groups build.”

Petro has not at press time explained his reference to the Mossad – which could be interpreted as an accusation of foreign interference by Israel in Colombian politics – or his repeated references to Nazi Germany in response to the scandal.

Justice Ibáñez is a member of Colombia’s Constitutional Court, the nation’s highest court. Last week, the head of the Constitutional Court José Fernando Reyes presented a letter to the nation’s Attorney General Luz Adriana Camargo in which Ibáñez accused Colombian intelligence agents, under the control of Petro, of targeting him and his family with illegal wiretapping and persecution. The alleged wiretapping occurred for “several months,” the letter read.

Ibáñez added that the auxiliary magistrates who work in his office have also been the target of the illegal wiretapping and did not rule out that other members of the Constitutional Court could be subject to the same illegal practices.

While the complete details of the complaint were presented in a confidential manner and are not publicly known at press time, Ibáñez reportedly became aware of the alleged illegal wiretapping this month after his cell phone began to experience technical issues, which prompted the Colombian justice to send a text message on the WhatsApp messaging platform warning his contacts about the alleged wiretapping situation.

The leaders of the four branches of the Colombian Supreme Court issued a press statement on Tuesday condemning the alleged wiretapping, stressing that if the wiretapping is verified it would put the independence of the judicial branch at risk. The message also described the alleged illegal acts as an “affront to democracy in Colombia.”

The Colombian newspaper El Colombiano reported on Tuesday that Colombian prosecutor Hernando Barreto, who is leading the investigation, has received evidence about the alleged wiretapping and obtained the testimony of Justice Ibáñez during a four-hour-long meeting.

In addition to the ongoing investigation over the alleged wiretapping against the Colombian Constitutional Court Justice, the Special Jurisdiction of Peace — a transitional justice court established in 2017 in charge of the crimes committed throughout Colombia’s armed conflict with organizations such as the Marxist FARC and ELN terrorist groups — denounced to the attorney general on Wednesday afternoon that some of its magistrates have been the target of alleged illegal wiretapping.

“We request that the Attorney General’s Office and the competent judicial authorities investigate the facts and punish all those responsible;” the letter read, “and consequently that the resources available to advance in the investigative acts against the facts denounced by the Constitutional Court be extended to the facts that affect the magistrates of the JEP.”

Petro, Colombia’s first leftist president ever and a former member of the Marxist M19 terrorist group, dismissed Justice Ibáñez’s accusations in a social media post on Wednesday, where he claimed that he “explicitly prohibited” the practice of wiretapping communications.

“If Judge Ibañez has received wharsapps [sic] with that information, he is only a victim of extreme right-wing groups that seek not only to break personal relations within the government but also between the government and the other branches of the state,” Petro’s message read, warning, “Stop falling into the naiveties that Nazi groups create.”

Shortly afterward, Petro, during an official military promotion ceremony, further dismissed the illegal wiretapping accusations by claiming that the complaints are unfounded “fake news” meant to weaken his government and likened the media’s actions to those of Nazi Germany Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels.

“The rumors reach the press and become news. They arrive by WhatsApp to the magistrates and they believe the WhatsApp network. They believe the fake news. They are trying to weaken the Government, breaking its internal relations and its relations with the other branches of public power with fake news,” Petro said.

“And the press, without investigating, is repeating them. What is the Goebbels’ tactic? Repeat and repeat the same lie and something will remain,” he continued.

Petro, who had Colombia break ties with Israel and has repeatedly condemned Israel in a series of antisemitic remarks following Hamas’ unprecedented October 7 terrorist attack, also accused the local media reporting on the subject of being “Mossad press” in reference to the Israeli intelligence agency.

“The Goebbels today are only those who are bombing children in Palestine. What sources are they gathering? Those of the fake news? Has the Colombian press become a Mossad press? Or are we able to put our cards on the table without them telling us what sources are protected? The sources are WhatsApp chains,” Petro said.

Justice Ibáñez told the local Caracol Radio on Wednesday morning that he will continue his judiciary duties with calm away from any pressure. The justice stressed that the ongoing judicial investigation is of a reserved nature that implies “absolute respect for the activity of the prosecutor.”

“I have limited myself, as I formally did, to only present it [the complaint] to the president of the constitutional court, who in turn submitted it to the consideration of the attorney general of the nation in a full room in which we were all gathered to read the communication that I delivered and which was delivered to the Prosecutor’s Office,” Ibáñez said.

When asked what he believed the intent was behind allegedly wiretapping him, the justice answered that he did not know – that is a matter that must be investigated by the Prosecutor’s Office.

“The important thing for these purposes is that one does not act with fear of partiality or being carried away by these circumstances, one must fully maintain independence, willingness to serve and, of course, that integrity that may try to influence the conduct in the exercise of the function and judicial power,” Ibáñez said. “I have no idea, I do not know who it is and why they do it.”

The ongoing investigation is not the first wiretapping-related scandal for Petro’s administration. In 2023, two members of Petro’s inner circle were accused of abuse of power and illegal wiretapping in a scandal now commonly known as “nannygate.”

The scandal began after Marelbys Meza, who worked as a nanny for Petro’s former chief of staff Laura Sarabia, accused Sarabia ordering the police to wiretap her phone and forcing her to take a polygraph test after Sarabia accused Meza of stealing a briefcase with thousands of U.S. dollars in it.

Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.

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