BOGOTA — “I am heterosexual,” Colombian President Gustavo Petro responded on Wednesday to two videos posted on social media in which he allegedly appears holding hands with a woman who is supposedly trans.
Images of a man in a cap and white shirt with a woman in a blue dress, accompanied by bodyguards, circulated on the X platform on Monday, with claims that it was the Colombian president.
He video It was supposedly recorded in the historic center of Ciudad de Panama, where Petro traveled that day on an official government visit for the inauguration of his counterpart José Raúl Mulino.
Without confirming its veracity, Petro responded to one of the hundreds of comments that mocked his alleged company.
Transgender presenter
“I am heterosexual, but you will never hear or read a transphobic word from me. Because not only would I cease to be a man, but I would cease to be human,” the president wrote on his X account.
Users who claim that it is Petro have pointed out similarities between the clothes worn by the man in the video and those worn by the president when he landed in the Panamanian capital.
Some users claim that this is a Colombian trans TV presenter named Linda Yepes.
Univision’s Despierta América interviewed Linda Yepes, a transgender presenter who is said to have been the person who accompanied Petro during the official government trip to Panama. “The presidential team won’t let me give details. I was in Panama, but I can’t say whether or not I’m the one in the video,” she responded when asked about the issue, which has caused further reactions on social media.
“I can’t give you the details yet… I can’t give you a concrete answer because I’m receiving threats,” he said.
“The presidential team is calling me, I will be here ready for you whenever you allow me to speak,” she added.
Petro resorts to his “privacy”
Although the video was recorded in public during an official government visit, the president spoke of maintaining his privacy.
“I have always considered that privacy is the ‘last ratio’ of freedom, the last trench of being free, and I will maintain this principle until I write about myself or die,” Petro added.
Panamanian journalist Alvaro Alvarado said through his social network X that the person accompanying Petro arrived in Panama from Colombia on a commercial flight before the president left his country.
“The young woman arrived in Panama and President Petro’s advance party transferred her to point X. Hours later, President Petro arrived in Panama City and had a room arranged by protocol for her to spend the night at the Sheraton Hotel.”
“The room had been inspected by security agents, who remained on the premises, to ensure that the area was kept free of any threat. Once Petro left the airport, the Colombian advance party detoured towards a hotel on Calle Uruguay, where they were supposedly going to visit a friend of President Petro. President Petro was led through the parking area, up to the 6th floor, then got out of the vehicle and entered the hotel.”
“The President never went to sleep at the Sheraton Hotel, as he stayed overnight at the Hotel on Calle Uruguay. My sources tell me that the President then decided to go for a walk in the Old Town with the young woman, and that was when he was captured by citizens who took videos and photos of him,” the journalist described.
Petro, the first leftist in power in Colombia, is a strong defender of LGBT rights, a group that largely supported his arrival to the presidency in 2022.
The ruler is married and has created a family with the first lady Verónica Alcocer, who remains silent after the scandal.
Social media users are asking who will pay for the expenses of the person accompanying the president.
Source: EDITORIAL AND AFP
