Photo credit, Reuters
Gustavo Petro is at the heart of a media and political storm following allegations by a woman who claims to have obtained public contracts in exchange for an affair with the former president.
The affair broke out on October 25. Deicy Jiménez, previously unknown to the public, gave a 22-minute interview to journalist Vicky Dávila, director of Revista Semana, former presidential candidate and opponent of Petro.
In this interview, she claims to have had a sexual relationship with Petro and to have received job offers from several government institutions before and during his presidency.
She also claims not to have been the only one. According to her, a network of "30 to 40 women" would have benefited from contracts and positions within the administration in exchange for their presence at "evenings of a sexual nature" with the former president.
At present, there are no testimonies from other women or any evidence to support the existence of such a network.
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After the interview, Jiménez published a video on his social networks confirming his sexual relationship with Petro. The former president does not deny his relationship with the woman, but categorically refutes allegations of granting government contracts in exchange for sexual favors.
“I would vomit on myself if I had done such a stupid thing,” he explained in a message posted on his X account.
Petro claims that this is an operation orchestrated by the De la Espriella government and suggests that Jiménez was paid to make these statements.
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Following the woman's testimony and the broadcast of the video, investigations were opened against the former president with various judicial authorities.
Here are the four main points of this affair, described as “sexual contracts” by the Colombian media.
Photo credit, Instagram of Deicy Jiménez
1. Allegations of so-called “sexual contracts”
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According to her testimony to *Semana* magazine, Deicy Jiménez met Petro through a webcam modeling platform. “He seemed like a customer like any other,” she said.
Petro allegedly introduced himself under a false name, but at one point he turned on his camera and Jiménez recognized him.
The young woman explained that a month later they agreed to meet in a hotel in Cali and began a romantic relationship.
She then moved to Bogotá. It was there, she said, that she began to obtain contracts with government institutions, although she did not specify whether Petro had offered them to her before or after their meeting.
Jiménez claimed that "several women" had contracts similar to his with Petro; in his own words, “between 30 and 40”.
“We all know a lot,” she added.
These statements come a few days after the filing of a complaint against Petro in Parliament by the current director of the Department of Presidency Administration (DAPRE), Carlos Ríos. Ríos, close to President Abelardo de la Espriella, spoke of "48 women that former President Gustavo Petro placed within the Presidency and whom he unfortunately exploited through employment contracts."
Following these statements and the interview with Deicy Jiménez, Petro's lawyer filed a complaint against Carlos Ríos with the prosecutor's office, accusing him of conspiracy to obtain false testimony from these women against Petro.
Previously, Angie Rodríguez, director of DAPRE during the Petro administration, also spoke, in an interview, of the alleged existence of a prostitution network within the Presidential Palace (Casa de Nariño).
Regarding Rodríguez, Petro called her psychotic.
Photo credit, AFP via Getty Images
2. Allegedly known evidence
In the Secop II system (Electronic Public Procurement System), ten service contracts were signed by Deicy Jiménez with three government entities.
These contracts, signed between 2021 and 2026, represent a total amount of 126,544,432 Colombian pesos (approximately 38,000 US dollars at the current exchange rate).
Some information provided by Jiménez during his testimony is consistent with that contained in the contracts, while others are inconsistent.
For example, he claims to have started working in the Senate as soon as he arrived in Bogotá. However, the first recorded contract actually concerns this institution.
However, according to his explanations, this would have happened in 2019, while the contract is dated July 29, 2021.
For comparison, Gustavo Petro was a senator between 2018 and 2022. According to Jiménez's testimony, she did not work directly with Petro in the Senate, but rather with Senator Maria José Pizarro, a member of her party and close ally of the former president.
She explained that she then had contracts with the Superintendence of Surveillance and Private Security, as well as with the Ministry of the Interior, in accordance with the Secop II system.
Both institutions fall under the executive branch, and Jiménez worked there mainly during Petro's presidency, which constitutes the highest executive authority.
The most recent contract, signed on January 21 of this year, is still in effect. It provides for monthly payments to Deicy Jiménez in the amount of 2,648,443 Colombian pesos (800 US dollars) until 2026.
It is unclear whether Jiménez still receives government funds.
The information available to date regarding the alleged relationship between Jiménez and the president comes from a video posted by the latter, as well as another video released by journalist D'Arcy Quinn. The first video appears to show Petro and Jiménez in a room. Petro puts on a jacket and Jiménez tells him, “You look really smart.” Petro replies: “Do you think so?” The conversation then drifts towards a sex toy not visible in the video, then the former president grabs Jiménez by the head and kisses him.
Deicy Jiménez posted the video on her Instagram account, with the caption: "I'm posting this video to prove that I'm telling the truth."
The second video is a recording of what appears to be a screenshot of Jiménez's phone during an alleged video call with Petro.
According to the recording, Petro, under a pseudonym, said to Jiménez: "You are very attractive. Get up." He also blows her a kiss and signals her to be quiet.
BBC News Mundo could not independently verify the authenticity of the videos or conversations circulating on social media, which allegedly took place between Jiménez and fake accounts managed by Petro.
3. What Pierre and his group say
Petro denied Jiménez's accusations and asked that his privacy be respected.
“I never offered a contract in exchange for sex,” she said in a statement released the same day the woman's testimony was made public.
“Helping poor women, single mothers and sex workers have other life choices... is very different from offering a contract in exchange for sex,” she added.
“My sexual relationships are not about power, but about finding love.”
More recently, she claimed to have never met Deicy Jiménez when he was president. “Is the video from almost eight years ago proof?” she asked.
In his complaint against Carlos Ríos, Petro's lawyer defends the thesis that the De la Espriella government orchestrated an operation to obtain testimonies from women against the former president.
The former president's party supported this version of events. “The operation to expose my private life is orchestrated by the government of Abelardo de la Espriella and money is at stake,” Petro said in his first statement on the subject.
This Monday, citing a telephone recording where he is seen kissing someone, the former president wrote on his X account: “This kiss is illegal, but it is essential.”
For her part, former senator Maria José Pizarro, a close ally of Petro, admitted that Deicy Jiménez worked in the Senate when he was vice president.
However, she claimed to have never known that Jiménez had a close relationship with Petro and declared that she had never exchanged this contract for "any favor".
Former presidential candidate Ivan Cepeda, of his party, said in an interview with the podcast El Reporte Coronell that Petro's behavior, now revealed, would be the subject of an internal investigation within the party.
“But we will not accept what they want to impose on us: destroy our government,” Cepeda stressed.
4. Investigation
Following the scandal, several investigations are underway at the public prosecutor's office, the Supreme Court of Justice and the attorney general's office.
According to his own statements, confirmed by local media, Deicy Jiménez handed over his cell phone to the prosecutor's office, where it was the subject of a forensic examination for several hours.
He should be heard by the prosecution this Friday.
At the same time, a Supreme Court judge ordered an investigation into contracts Jiménez had made in the Senate.
“Regardless of personal details, the main thing is to determine whether there are criminal elements, especially with regard to possible contracts involving public funds,” Judge Carlos Roberto Solórzano told reporters.
Events prior to Petro's accession to the presidency may be the subject of an investigation, both legal and criminal, carried out by the prosecution and the Supreme Court. The events that occurred during his presidency fall within the jurisdiction of the Impeachment Commission, made up of parliamentarians and renowned for the slowness of its investigations.
However, two MPs from the ruling National Salvation Party filed a complaint against Petro before the commission, arguing that he may be "unfit to carry out his duties due to a lack of integrity".
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