Gustavo Petro’s Ex-Foreign Minister Files Criminal Complaint Against The Colombian President WIth US Attorney General

Álvaro Leyva Durán, Colombia’s former Minister of Foreign Affairs, has filed a criminal complaint in the United States with US Attorney General Pamela Bondi. The newly revealed document, dated September 25, 2025, from Bogotá, requests an investigation and potential indictment against Colombian President Gustavo Petro Urrego and Juan Diego Quesada, a correspondent for the Spanish newspaper El País. The complaint was filed with US authorities before Petro and his Interior Minister Armando Benedetti were placed on the U.S. Treasury’s “Clinton List,” essentially designating them as criminals.

Leyva alleges that Petro and Quesada disseminated information based on manipulated recordings that falsely linked him to a plot to oust the head of state. The complaint states that a forensic analysis found the audio “is not original or presented in its entirety” and “was capriciously edited to be disseminated with a completely contrived meaning—an entrapment of the victims”. Leyva claims the recordings were handed to Quesada, who then used the Spanish newspaper to “fabricate a coup d’état”.

On September 23, 2025, President Gustavo Petro stated on his X account that a complaint would be filed against him from the U.S.. He referred to Leyva as “the Hidalgo” and accused him and his “golpista allies” of trying to overthrow him. Petro also responded to previous allegations from Leyva regarding his health and absences from international commitments, denying that he was intoxicated. He mentioned that his medical condition prevents him from consuming strong liquor. Leyva had previously submitted a 33-page document to the Colombian House of Representatives’ Investigation and Accusation Commission, detailing what he considered erratic behavior by the president in international settings and requesting that Petro undergo medical and toxicological exams.

The complaint says that Colombian president falsely accused his former foreign minister of plotting a coup with US politicians against him.

The complaint details a news article published by El País on June 29, 2025, titled “Former Foreign Minister Álvaro Leyva sought Trump’s complicity in the United States to topple Petro”. The article, which cited recordings and sources close to the White House, alleged Leyva was “seeking support to bring down the president of Colombia and place Francia Márquez in his place”. Leyva’s complaint asserts that this publication and subsequent accusations were based on false information. He claims the recordings were in the possession of the Colombian secret service and that President Petro listened to them, becoming “very annoyed” before publicly accusing Leyva of attempting a coup. Leyva’s complaint includes an expert report that concluded the audio was edited, with added noises, and that the original file was not presented intact.

The former minister contests the article’s claims about his whereabouts and actions in the U.S.. He states he was in the U.S. for eight days, from January 3 to January 11, 2025. He refutes the article’s suggestion of meetings with Republican advisers in April of that year, pointing out that Donald Trump was sworn in as head of state on January 20, 2025, and therefore the White House staff was not yet in place when Leyva was in the U.S.. He also denies that he or his son, Jorge Leyva, met with or even intended to meet with U.S. Representatives Mario Díaz-Balart or Carlos A. Giménez. Leyva asserts that the newspaper never contacted him for comment.

The complaint details Quesada’s interviews with Colombian media outlets, including Caracol Televisión and Caracol Radio. In these interviews, Quesada admitted the audios were edited “for the understanding of the spectator, of the readers” and that some parts were “confusing”. He also stated that the audios were in the possession of the Colombian secret service, which showed them to the President.

In addition, Leyva’s complaint highlights the relationship between Quesada and Lorena Arboleda Zárate, who served as press chief for the Petro presidential campaign. The complaint states that Quesada and Arboleda had a child born on April 11, 2025. Arboleda was named Counselor of Foreign Relations in New York via a decree signed by President Petro on January 20, 2025.

The complaint suggests that Quesada and Petro “would have conspired to filter the fraudulent recordings and manipulate information” through the article published in

El País to portray Leyva, his son Jorge, his sister Dorothy, Republican congressmen, and President Trump as “co-conspirators in a coup d’état”.

Leyva Cites US Law in Seeking Indictment

In his request to US authorities, Leyva suggests several criminal statutes that may be applicable, including:

18 U.S.C. § 371

— Conspiracy to Defraud the United States

18 U.S.C. § 1001

— False Statements

18 U.S.C. § 241

— Conspiracy Against Rights

18 U.S.C. § 2

— Aiding and Abetting

He also references US Supreme Court cases, including

Branzburg v. Hayes (1972), which established that the First Amendment does not exempt a reporter from responding to a grand jury subpoena and answering questions relevant to a criminal investigation. He also cites

United States v. Sterling (4th Cir. 2013), which reinforced that a journalist can be compelled to testify about a source when the information is related to a crime.

The complaint concludes with Leyva offering to cooperate fully with the US Department of Justice as a complainant and to provide any additional evidence.

The translated criminal complaint follows:

Bogotá D.C., Republic of Colombia

September 25, 2025

Madam

Attorney General of the United States of America

PAMELA BONDI

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

Subject: I denounce for the opening of an indictment those who I indicate in section I of this brief, so that you, Mrs. Attorney General, initiate the necessary investigations to proceed to apply federal regulations and jurisprudence in order to guarantee complete justice.

1. 1. COMPLAINANT DETAILS

Full name: Álvaro Leyva Durán

Status: Lawyer with professional card No. 29504-D1, issued by the competent national authority. Former representative to the Chamber, former senator, former minister of state, former constituent.

Documents: Colombian Citizenship Card No. 17.064.0362

Colombian Diplomatic Passport No. DP069531

Contact: [email protected]

1. 1. DATA OF THE ACCUSED

Name: Gustavo Francisco Petro Urrego, President of the Republic of Colombia

Document: Colombian Citizenship Card No. 208.079 of Cogua,

Cundinamerca, Colombia

Contact: [email protected]

Residence: Presidential Palace, Casa de Nariño

Carrera 8 # 7-26, La Candelaria, Bogotá D.C., Colombia

Contact: Phone +57 601 562 9300 (Presidency)

Name: Juan Diego Quesada

Position: Correspondent for the Andean area (Republic of Colombia, Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Republic of Peru, Republic of Ecuador), of the newspaper El País, Madrid headquarters, capital of the Kingdom of Spain

Contact: Diario el País, Madrid, Kingdom of Spain, +34 914 400 135

Contact: +57 315 4556348 / +34 914 400 135 / +34 910 538 059

Address, El País newspaper, Madrid, capital of the Kingdom of Spain: Calle Miguel

Yusten Nº 40, 28037, Madrid, Spain

Contact: LinkedIn

III. FACTS THAT ARE DENOUNCED

The Spanish journalist Juan Diego Quesada, correspondent of the newspaper El País de Madrid, frequented his presence in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela from the moments in preparation for the last presidential elections that took place in that country. His repeated visits to Venezuela and the reason for them are mentioned in an interview that journalist Carol Ann Figueroa made to him on her program La Pill (Podcast/Spotify and YouTube), on July 4.

This explains why his frequent contact with Mr. Armando Benedetti has been going on for some time.

The former Colombian ambassador to Venezuela, Mr. Armando Benedetti, today Minister of the Interior of the Petro government, who by the way, Mrs. Attorney General, in an interview with journalist Patricia Lara Salive of the Colombian magazine Cambio, published on April 27 of this year, states that “(…) I don’t want to be addicted but I am,” he was accompanied during his diplomatic tenure by the official Mrs. Sandra Lorena Arboleda Zárate, a protégé of Mr. Benedetti and of the President of the Republic himself. Is

it is clear then that the relationship between the four of them (Benedetti, Gustavo Petro, Sandra Lorena Arboleda and Juan Diego Quesada), goes back a long way. For more charity, Arboleda Zárate was Press Chief of the Petro Presidente campaign. See footer.

The fact is that the aforementioned Spanish journalist, as already noted, correspondent of the newspaper El País with headquarters in Madrid, capital of the Kingdom of Spain, impregnates Mrs. Arboleda Zárate, thus making the journalist a figure particularly inclined to the current Minister of the Interior of Colombia Armando Benedetti and the Head of State.  Dr. Gustavo Petro.

The intricate relationship that arose makes Juan Diego Quesada a very useful instrument. For this reason, you were given some recordings that were made fraudulently to me, Madam Attorney General, on the basis of which the aforementioned journalist proceeds to resort to a malicious invention by instrumentalizing for the disastrous purposes the aforementioned Spanish newspaper, of which I repeat, you are a correspondent. He ended up criminally forging an entrapment.

Thus, on June 29, 2025, the newspaper “El País” of Madrid headlined:

Former Foreign Minister Álvaro Leyva searched in the United States

Trump’s complicity to overthrow Petro

Under the title:

“The former foreign minister, according to audios and testimonies close to the White House to which EL PAÍS has had access, was gathering support to bring down the president of Colombia and place Francia Márquez in his place.”

In the development of the news the newspaper indicates: “The recordings to which EL PAÍS has had access have been in the hands of the Colombian secret service.” And he adds: “The president listened to them in his office and was very upset. Later, during a speech, he accused Leyva of trying to perpetrate a coup d’état against him, although he did not offer further details. The former foreign minister, worried about the president’s revelation, went to Madrid for security reasons.”

Allow me to tell you at this time, Madam Attorney General, that a forensic study carried out by a recognized expert fell on the aforementioned recordings. It was possible to establish that it was a single recording; The originality of this file (recording) was analyzed by means of metadata.

It was concluded that the audio is not original or presented in its entirety. It was capriciously edited to be disseminated with a totally accommodating sense – entrapment of the victims. Noises were added. The aforementioned expert report is under chain of custody.

Juan Diego Quesada, in an irresponsible manner, compromises the important newspaper mentioned above, for which he is a correspondent, with the fabrication of a coup d’état allegedly promoted by the one who presents this complaint to you, Madam Attorney General, in collusion with public officials and advisers to Republican congressmen of your country, the United States of America. A whole fiction of a criminal conduct of Mr. Juan Diego Quesada, together with Mr. Gustavo Petro Urrego, President of Colombia. From this, the traceability of the iter criminis can be achieved so that the corresponding indictment falls on the accused  .

In the same edition of the Madrid edition of El País (Sunday, June 29, 2025), the date of President Gustavo Petro’s arrival in Seville, Spain, otherwise coincides with the date of President Gustavo Petro’s arrival in Seville, Spain, the newspaper points out: “Álvaro Leyva sought Trump’s complicity in the United States to overthrow Petro. I emphasize this because by the time of my few days in your country, Madam Attorney General, President Trump and his collaborators at the level of government had not yet been sworn in.

It is recalled that President Trump was sworn in as Head of State on the day

January 20, 2025. It is easy for you, Madam Attorney General, to confirm

with the immigration authorities at their disposal, that I arrived in the United States on Friday, January 3 of this year and that I left their country on Saturday, January 11. That is, this year, Madam Attorney General. I was in the USA for eight calendar days in total. So, that the White House “never considered the proposal” is a clumsy claim. It borders on stupidity. A total fallacy. Aberrant insult.

Alluding to an alleged interlocutor or informant of his, the journalist Quesada states: “He told us [referring to Álvaro Leyva, who signed the complaint], that he had all the tools to execute a plan to remove him [Gustavo Petro]. Her place would be taken by Francia Márquez [the vice president]. He [Leyva] had evidence that Petro could not continue to hold office and that if this went ahead, the president would not have the capacity to respond.” And Juan Diego Quesada adds: “The help of the Americans was very important,” says one of the people who met with Leyva, 82, in April. As you can see, Madam Attorney General, Juan Diego Quesada is physically present to me in the month of April of this year in your country. It was clear to me that I left the USA on the date already noted. I repeat: Saturday, January 11. The Attorney General can ascertain from the corresponding immigration records that I have not returned to the United States of America since that date.

https://caracol.com.co/2025/01/20/posesion-of-donald-trump-2025-livelast-hour-of-the-ceremony-and-his-first-decisions/.

The aforementioned journalist Quesada, Madam Attorney General, is adding lies. More insults. More trappings.

“The former foreign minister has not answered the questions on this matter that this newspaper has asked him,” says his correspondent Quesada.  Another lie. That newspaper has never asked me any questions. And he adds an additional falsehood like this: “(…). The former foreign minister and his son, Jorge Leyva, have good contacts among the ranks of the Republican Party of the United States.” And he continues: “In that way they asked their friends to organize a meeting with Congressman Mario Díaz-Balart, representative for Florida.”

Madam Attorney General, it is easy for you to determine since when my son Jorge Leyva has not traveled to the United States of America. I can tell you in advance: For several years. Absolutely impossible his presence in the time, manner and place indicated by the journalist Juan Diego Quesada.

And the same shameless journalist continues: “(…). They also intended to meet with another well-known congressman in Miami, Carlos Antonio Giménez.” “They had,“ says Quesada. Are you referring to my son and me? Jorge Leyva, the one who has been absent for years, and me, who is making this complaint? I apologize to Carlos Antonio Giménez. I did not know the important role of Representative Giménez in U.S. politics. I confess that I knew nothing about him. I had no news of his background. We had no intention then of looking for the aforementioned congressman.

Madam Attorney General, I would like to refer to an interview that a Colombian media outlet of significant national and international importance gave to journalist Juan Diego Quesada on July 1. It is the Caracol Television Network. (Morning program, Noticias Caracol en Vivo). Interviewer, journalist Juan Camilo Cortés.

In the interview, which is fully included in the previous footnote, among the various responses, Juan Diego Quesada affirms what I record below:

To the question (the first), where the audios come from, he answers: “Well. A journalistic work from sources that I have cultivated for a long time. Almost from the beginning of the government. I can’t say much more.”

He adds: “I make a clarification about the first thing I told you… They are sources that I have had for a long time… no… not necessarily bound by institutionality.” Remember, Madam Attorney General, by the corresponding footnote, that Mrs. Sandra Lorena Arboleda Zárate, was head of the presidential campaign of the current President Gustavo Petro.

When asked if the audios are edited, he accepts that they were edited. And he adds: “There is a larger version, but it was edited for… for the understanding of the viewer, of the readers… they were parts where it was confusing… you didn’t understand what you heard and you didn’t… it did not add anything to the information.”

To the question about the fact that the journalist Quesada in his news item (the one published in El País de Madrid, on June 29), points out the search for meetings that Leyva has had with Republican congressmen, especially two, the interviewee says: “I have that documented. In fact, I spent a few weeks in the United States, in New York. Specifically I received the audios, but we do not publish like this lightly, we do not publish what we receive without checking and that was an investigation of ours that does not reach three weeks, it would remain in eighteen, nineteen, twenty days and I had access to advisors of these Republicans, even they came out yesterday and did not deny their … meetings with Álvaro Leyva that his son also played a role. What was said in those meetings… The testimonies I have collected say more or less what he says in the audios. (…)”.

It is worth noting Madam Attorney General, that the content of the audios does not refer at all to that particular. On the other hand, I tell you, Madam Attorney General, that I do not know a single adviser to any Republican. Not a single one. You may well find out.

On the subject, Juan Diego Quesada adds: “Yes… we have even interviewed you… We have listened to interviews. This morning Rep. Carlos Giménez said… he says, I don’t know how much influence former Foreign Minister Leyva and his son have on U.S. politics…”

Alluding to my name and Jorge Leyva, my son, the journalist Quesada indicates:

“He knows people, the son knows people mostly from Florida, I guess the next step was Donald J. Trump, but… have… the influence I suppose is small, it also sounds very crazy… that the United States, which is involved in a thousand things, suddenly worries about Petro when… when neither the situation is coup nor … or anything… The thing is that not even the United States has done anything in Venezuela, so I imagine that it would not have Colombia under its magnifying glass.”

Madam Attorney General: Mr. Journalist Juan Diego Quesada, correspondent in the Andean region of the newspaper El País of the Kingdom of Spain, invented and accommodated false value judgments.

The interview with Juan Diego Quesada continues, as follows: “There is also another detail of the investigation… This article does not take President Petro by surprise. (…). Of course, because I consulted him. I consulted him this week, or well last week before the publication because I wanted to get his version (…)”. (…), I tell him that… that my investigation is solid and I have verified that he went to the United States to seek the complicity of the… of the White House, which of course I would not publish audios like that out of nowhere and without having a fast check-in behind it, and well yes, I spoke with Petro about that.”

To the question asked by the Colombian interviewer to Quesada, if he knows who recorded the audios, the Spanish journalist answers: “I don’t know, I don’t know. I don’t know, I don’t know.” And he adds: “The Colombian secret service had them and was the one who showed them to the President.” He continues: “If not even Leyva knows that who he was eating with has betrayed him and so has Leyva… this if it… I take it for granted, the New York source who says that he met with him in April, or I don’t remember if he told me March, April, I have… I have that doubt right now, I don’t remember by heart, he must know who was there, because of course he made those contacts with the Republicans through someone called Dorotea. I’ve never written this but look, I’ll tell you.”

Madam Attorney General, as you can see, Quesada is once again linking my son. It again places us in New York City. Let it be time to tell you that the last time I was in that city was in 2023, on the occasion of my appearance before the United Nations Security Council, in my capacity as Minister of Foreign Affairs. Since then I have not been present in New York, much less with the supposed company of my son Jorge Leyva. And I remind you: It has already been established that I left your country on January 11. I haven’t been back since.

I continue, Madam Attorney General. Juan Diego Quesada links “someone named Dorotea” to the conspiracy, according to his saying. So deep was his research in that city that he did not know that Dorotea (Dorothy), is my younger sister, American by birth, residing in New York City. Juan Diego Quesada makes a fool of himself when the interviewer of the morning program, Noticias Caracol en Vivo affirms: “OK Dorotea”.

“Yes,” Quesada replies. To which the interviewer affirms, “it is like a link”.

To the latter, Juan Diego Quesada comments: “Yes. Leyva and the son use Dorotea to reach the advisors, although they know the Republicans, but it is a way of introducing themselves in a more … more direct.”

Later on, the interviewer asks Quesada: “Ehhh, is Dorotea a nickname? Or is it the name…”.

Quesada’s response: “I don’t know, I don’t know. I don’t know, I don’t know.”

To end the interview, says the journalist of the Caracol Chain, Mr. Juan

Camilo Cortes: “Very good… Juan Diego Quesada, author of this research. Investigative article from the newspaper El País. Juan Diego, thank you very much, let me confess that it leaves the name of Dorotea in my head.”

Quesada responds: “Okay, okay. I’ll try to clear up that mystery.”

What is certain, Madam Attorney General, is that Juan Diego Quesada took advantage of the time of his alleged investigation in New York City, to be by the side of Mrs. Sandra Lorena Arboleda Zárate, at the time of the birth of their son. He was born on April 11. I refrain from mentioning the child’s name because it is a newborn.

Mrs. Sandra Lorena Arboleda Zárate was appointed as Counselor for Foreign Affairs attached to the Central Consulate General in New York, by Decree No. 0046 of January 20, 2025. Madam Attorney General, the administrative act of appointment is signed by the President of the Republic, Mr. Gustavo Petro. See footer.

It is worth adding that about the successes of his supposed investigation in New York City, Juan Diego Quesada did two additional interviews.  One with journalist Juan Carlos Vélez, YouTube channel B12Radio, and another on the YouTube channel Los Danieles. These interviews are attached in the corresponding footnote.

Madam Attorney General, it is easy to deduce that the journalist so often mentioned, Mr. Juan Diego Quesada and President Gustavo Petro Urrego, would have conspired to leak the fraudulent recordings and manipulate information through the aforementioned newspaper article, published in the international newspaper El País of Madrid, capital city of the Kingdom of Spain, with the purpose of exposing and pointing out advisors of Republican congressmen and congressmen themselves, and even the President of the United States, Donald J. Trump, as co-participants in a coup d’état, allegedly promoted by these very high U.S. public officials in collusion with the one who denounces, Álvaro Leyva, at first identified, with Jorge Leyva, identified with the Colombian Citizenship Card No.

80,418,271 and my sister Dorotea Leyva (Mary Dorothy Leyva), a U.S. citizen by birth, born in Manhattan, a neighborhood of New York City.

York, on January 12, 1958, at ST. Clare’s Hospital. Additional IDs for Mary Dorothy (Dorotea): New York State, Identification Card No. 110 818 296, United States Passport No. 570453167.

Madam Attorney General, I can abound in fearful and malicious pronouncements by Mr. Gustavo Petro, aimed at fabricating a conspiracy of mine accompanied by third nationals and U.S. servants with the purpose of seeking an illicit means to bring about his overthrow.

In May of this year, Petro gave two public speeches that demonstrate this. In one, he directly pointed to U.S. Congressman Mario Díaz-Balart, of being the alleged manager of a conspiracy, in the company of a “jefe gremial,“ promoting a coup d’état against him. Thus, he links that American public servant to the spawn of a plot.

In a second speech, delivered in the Plaza de Armas of Bogotá, capital city of Colombia, President Gustavo Petro pointed out that the undersigned (Álvaro

Leyva, complainant) is a “decrepit old madman” and that what happened is “a plot. And the plot is not national, it is not of Colombians, although there is

Colombians,” Petro said, “and therefore, it is very dangerous because it is an attack on the sovereignty of Colombia and the freedom of Colombians.” The above was accompanied by a message X after that intervention in which he notes:

“(…), Díaz-Balart, do not try to overthrow the President of Colombia, because you will unleash the Colombian revolution.” This is Mario Diaz-Balart, Representative to the House of the United States. Keep in mind, Madam Attorney General, that the Spanish journalist, Juan Diego Quesada, in his malicious and insulting inventiveness, had already alluded to Diaz-Balart and other Americans such as Representative Giménez, regarding the plot to overthrow Mr. Petro.

Madam Attorney General: Mr. Gustavo Petro’s obsession with accusing Álvaro Leyva (complainant), and high-level American congressmen and public officials of being conspirators is so evident, that he fraudulently publicly insinuated without any blush, that other Colombians would be accomplices of the person who advances this denunciation, in the conspiratorial conduct. Such is the case of Mr. Bruce Mac Master, president of the National Association of Businessmen of Colombia, ANDI, (See footnote) who on August 18 was accused by President Petro of being involved in the alleged

overthrow. (Petro had already referred to a “Jefe Gremial” as a coup plotter). In a post on the social network X he stated the following: “Bruce Mac Master has not clarified why he is mentioned in Leyva’s recordings. Did he dare to collaborate in a coup d’état? The prosecutor’s office should clarify this attempt at sedition for us. (…)”. Look, Madam Attorney General, Petro takes it for granted that there was an attempt at sedition.

Mr. Mac Master in message X of August 18 responds to President Petro as follows: “To Gustavo Petro I propose that we clarify this and many issues to the country.

“I have said publicly and in the media that in fact, Mr. Leyva asked me to meet and told me practically everything that was included in the letters that he later published. I have also said that he is not the only former minister of his, with whom I have spoken. I constantly talk to several.

“Now it is your turn, President, clarify for us all the pending issues you have. If you want, we can make the list together. Cases of corruption that they do not clarify for us, his actions around the functions of the position, public policy decisions far from the technique and the general benefit, attacks on freedom of the press, appointments and dismissals. There are countless issues that the nation deserves to be clarified.

“Now, if you are going to continue accusing me of a crime, you better have substantive reasons to do so, and concrete evidence, because otherwise, we will have to settle it in justice and perhaps not only nationally, but before international organizations, which protect all the rights that you violate when you assume your anti-democratic persecutions,  using their position of institutional power to attack and affect the reputation of many, and put us in danger.”

Madam Attorney General: The letters mentioned in the aforementioned post by Mr. Bruce Mac Master, I will send them to you as soon as possible.  I will also send you what I said as a witness, in my appearance before the Commission of Investigation and Accusation of the House of Representatives of the Congress of the Republic of my country. I was summoned to explain the contents of these letters.

And Gustavo Petro’s desire to continue linking those who today denounce him to you is constant; and he makes U.S. public servants accomplices in a conscious and malicious manner, Madam Attorney General. This is evidenced by what was stated in the recent message X that he released on September 17, which reads as follows: “@petrogustavo -Alvaro Leyva and the decertification. It was already in its recording.” A fallacious lie.

Madam Attorney General: The corrupt intention of the Spanish journalist Juan Diego Quesada, in collusion with Gustavo Petro, President of the Republic of Colombia today, can be measured by the headline of the newspaper El País de Madrid of the Kingdom of Spain, on June 29 of this year. I remind you:

Former Foreign Minister Álvaro Leyva sought Trump’s complicity in the United States to overthrow Petro

Juan Diego Quesada instrumentalized the important media to put it in the title and affirm in a restrictive way such barbarity. I, Álvaro Leyva, Colombian, hand in hand with the President of the United States of America, Donald J. Trump, acted in a malicious and organized manner to overthrow Gustavo Petro from the presidency?

Regarding the opinion that Mr. Gustavo Petro has of his Head of State, Donald Trump, Madam Attorney General, I would like to attach message X from Mr. Petro. See footer.

****

Madam Attorney General: The damage caused to society in general, to me personally, to my son Jorge Leyva, to my entire family, to my sister Dorotea Leyva (Mary Dorothy), with the accusation made to us by the defendants identified above, either directly or indirectly, and by the newspaper El País de Madrid of the Kingdom of Spain,  of having conspired in the United States of America, in alleged complicity with public servants of his country, including President Donald J. Trump, to carry out a coup d’état in the Republic

of Colombia and the recent decertification (U.S. evaluation of the effectiveness of the Colombian government’s fight against illicit crops and criminal structures), requires all the investigative and sanctioning scopes that allow the application of American norms and local jurisprudence at its disposal.

I add, however, that all of the above is denounced to you, Madam Attorney General, within the framework of the international agreements on judicial cooperation Colombia-United States, since some of the victims are citizens of the United States of America. This does not prevent me from taking the liberty of recalling the rules that I indicate below:

18 U.S.C. § 371 — Conspiracy to Defraud the United States

18 U.S.C. § 1001 — False Statements

18 U.S.C. § 241 — Conspiracy Against Rights

18 U.S.C. § 2 — Aiding and Abetting

Madam Attorney General, I add to the foregoing, by way of recall, that the Supreme Court of the United States, in Branzburg v. Hayes (1972), ruled unequivocally that “the First Amendment does not relieve a newspaper reporter from the obligation to respond to a grand jury subpoena and answer questions relevant to a criminal investigation.” The Court affirmed that journalists, like all citizens, must provide

evidence of criminal conduct. In addition, in United States v. Sterling (4th Cir. 2013), the court reinforced that a journalist can be compelled to testify about a source when the information relates to the commission of a crime, and the government’s interest in investigating and prosecuting that crime.

Finally, please bear in mind, Madam Attorney General, that for whatever is necessary, I, Álvaro Leyva Durán, in my capacity as complainant, place myself at your entire disposal.

With all due respect and consideration, Madam Attorney General of the United States of America, I subscribe very respectfully.

Above photo: Alvaro Leyva when he was Petro’s foreign minister (courtesy Minexterior)