The social crisis in Peru after the attempted coup of Pedro Castillo, his vacancy and subsequent rise to power of Dina Boluarte has been escalating. So far, eight deaths have been reported due to clashes between the Police and the protesters, and multiple damages to public and private property.
In this context, many rumors and misinformation have emerged. In the last days, The “news” has been disseminated on social networks that chats of Colombian President Gustavo Petro have been leaked in which he talks with Pedro Castillo delegates. In them, he would have suggested making the demonstrations and blockades in the country permanent. Nevertheless, This is false. We found no record of the alleged conversations, Colombian government sources denied it, and the account that started the rumor has a history of disinformation.
Viral post on Twitter
There are no records of the alleged chats and government sources denied it.
We searched through keywords in different search engines for the supposed revelation (1, two, 3). We did not find any related results that show the evidence. We communicated with our colleagues from ColombiaCheck, who are also dedicated to verification and are based in the Caribbean country. Ana María Saavedra, its director, told us that the “news” has not been published in any media outlet in that region.
In conversation with Verifier, Colombian government sources described the apparent leak as false.
Latam News Alert, constant misinformer
The Alerta Latam News Twitter account has several recent hoaxes spread to its credit. Last Tuesday, December 13, spread the information that Concepción Baracaldo, general director of the Colombian Institute for Family Welfare (ICBF), had resigned from her post. Hours later, the same ICBF came out to deny them.
Comparison between publications
The same day, assured that Pedro Castillo had said that he was drugged before delivering his attempted coup speech. Also, that Petro would have supported this theory. This is also false, since who slipped the rumor, it was actually Guido Bellido. Castillo has not spoken (1, two, 3, 4) about this alleged doping before his message. We also did not find results that involve the Colombian president (1, two, 3, 4).
Comparison between publications
Two days ago, on December 11, published that Gustavo Petro lost 500,000 followers before the elimination of bots announced by the new owner of Twitter, Elon Musk. However, we found no related entries (1, two, 3). Likewise, we use the Wayback Machine tool to detect any change in followers compared to past dates (1, two, 3), without finding noticeable differences.
What is Gustavo Petro’s position on the situation of Pedro Castillo?
Last Monday, December 12, the Colombian president signed a joint communiqué which brought together, in addition to him, the presidents of Mexico, Argentina and Bolivia. In this, they do not recognize Dina Boluarte as ruler and continue to call Pedro Castillo “president of the Republic of Peru”. They also point out that “from the day of his election, (Castillo) was the victim of undemocratic harassment”. Finally, they ask that the human rights of the Chotano politician be respected.
Two days later, on Wednesday December 14, the Colombian head of state posted the next tweet questioning the American Convention for the situation facing Pedro Castillo:
“The crisis in Peru, the arrest, without a judge and without defense, of a popularly elected president has seriously questioned the role of the American Convention in the Latin American legal system.”
Petro’s tweet criticizing Castillo’s current situation
The day after the attempted dissolution of Congress in Peru, on Thursday, December 8, the Caribbean politician described through another tweet What parliamentary coups the refusal of Congress to let him leave the country on several occasions and the various restrictive measures taken by the Prosecutor’s Office against him and his family.
conclusion
We found no evidence of the leaked chats in which Gustavo Petro asked Pedro Castillo’s collaborators to make the strikes in Peru permanent. Colombian government sources denied it to us. The account that spread the misinformation is known for posting hoaxes. We classify information as false.
*To find out if a publication on social networks is true or false, you can ask La República to verify the information. Send your request to the section Contact or to our WhatsApp (+51 997 883 271).
