Former prosecutor Francisco Barbosa responds to President Gustavo Petro's remarks about his time in the Attorney General's Office: "Another nonsense."

Former Attorney General Francisco Barbosa responded to President Gustavo Petro's statements, according to which he proposed that he leave the then deputy attorney general, Martha Mancera, in her position .

Through a post on his social media account X, the presidential candidate also addressed the issue.

In recent statements, the President claimed that former Attorney General Barbosa told him: "Let's make an agreement, so that (Martha) Mancera remains the Attorney General. So far, I understand the proposal." According to the President, there was discontent at the time over the shortlist of Attorney Generals he had selected.

"Yesterday, Petro appeared with a new insult against me: that I proposed leaving the deputy prosecutor in charge of the entity. Another absurdity that falls flat on its face," Barbosa initially wrote in response to the president's remarks.

The former head of the investigative and prosecutorial body then explained why, according to him, the president is mistaken in his statements.

"Petro presented the shortlist for my replacement six months before my term as Attorney General expired. He surely did this to reassure his people and delegitimize my administration. Let's remember that his son had been arrested as a result of accusations filed by his ex-wife," Barbosa said.

He then stated: "With the shortlist presented, the decision to select the Attorney General was no longer his, but rather the Supreme Court's. Therefore, it would make no sense for me to make an absurd proposal to someone who, by that point, had already submitted a shortlist to the Supreme Court."

On a third point, Barbosa maintained: "From the beginning, my relations with Petro were tense. In his victory speech, he "ordered" me to release the criminals from the First Line, which I immediately rejected. Since then, he has done nothing but attack me institutionally to pressure me to suspend arrest warrants for criminals of various kinds. As the country knows, I never gave in."

At the end of the post, the former prosecutor stated: "What did happen—and is reflected in my book, *El Fiscal*—is that Petro offered me an embassy so that we could 'make a move on things.' I didn't accept, out of principle and because I warned the country from the start about his autocratic ambitions. I repeat: Petro has long since become the laughingstock of the world. This attack is nothing more than another of his antics to cover up the current scandal."

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