Former Colombian President Gustavo Petro has been accused of exploiting 48 women by arranging presidential parties, with officials alleging they were hired “just to be with President Petro.”
Carlos Andrés Ríos, director of Colombia’s Administrative Department of the Presidency (DAPRE), alleged that Petro oversaw a system that “systematically” controlled and weaponized the women through service contracts, using public funds in exchange for intimate relationships.
“We are going to prove to the Colombian people how the Casa de Nariño was unfortunately set up, organized, and tailored for something completely different — not to govern, but to party there every single day, bring in women,” Ríos said during a congressional hearing last week.
Former President Gustavo Petro denied claims that women were hired to attend presidential parties and provide sexual favors. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara, File)
Petro rejected the allegations Sunday, saying he had never used public office to obtain sex.
“I have never given out a contract in exchange for sexual relations. I would vomit on myself if I ever did such a thing,” Petro wrote in a post on X.
He said his administration had provided state-funded assistance to vulnerable women, but insisted those programs were fundamentally different from awarding contracts in exchange for sexual favors.
The Casa de Nariño, the presidential palace, in Bogotá, Colombia, on Dec. 17, 2025. (Nathalia Angarita/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
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“Helping poor women, female heads of households, and those engaged in sex work so that they have different life options — as I have demonstrated in public administration through concrete and funded programs — is something very different from giving out contracts in exchange for sexual relations. No person who has participated in those public programs will ever be able to say that I have done anything of the sort,” he said.
Petro also acknowledged that he occasionally visited establishments where sex work took place when he was young. He said he regretted those experiences and had not returned to such places in decades.
“When I was very young, I occasionally visited places where sex work was practiced. There, I experienced that paying for sex felt dirty to me, and I perceived the sadness of the men and women who attended those places. That is why I stopped visiting them decades ago,” he said.
The accusations come as Petro faces broader criticism over alleged misuse of public funds, the depletion of national budgets and drug trafficking.
Petro has dismissed the allegations as politically motivated attacks from figures including President Donald Trump and Colombian President Abelardo de la Espriella.
President Donald Trump and former Colombian President Gustavo Petro have previously clashed amid a series of accusations and public disputes. (Mauro Pimentel/AFP via Getty Images; Francis Chung/Politico/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“After attempting to portray me as corrupt and a drug trafficker — an intention expressed by people like Abelardo de la Espriella and Donald Trump, without being able to present a single piece of evidence of corruption or drug trafficking, because I have never stolen a single peso from the public treasury and I have fought for over two decades against drug traffickers, exposing their political ties,” Petro said.
News Media contacted the White House for comment.