The fight between the president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, and his former director of the Administrative Department of the Presidency (DAPRE) and current manager of the Adaptation Fund, Angie Rodríguez, escalated this Monday. The outgoing president has publicly asked his Minister of Finance, Germán Ávila, to declare the official “incompetent” and dismiss her, after she gave an interview to Noticias RCN in which she denounced irregularities, threats, and a web of corruption in the Executive.
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“Angie is a great manipulator who sees public service for her own benefit and whom I regret having met,” Petro wrote on X. He attached a letter dated July 1 in which the acting general secretary of the Adaptation Fund, a multi-million entity responsible for works to prepare the country for climate change, reported a 10-day medical leave for Rodríguez, resulting from a psychiatric evaluation. The president questioned that Rodríguez had returned to her duties “so quickly” and added: “I don’t understand a press that doesn’t investigate who it interviews and even disrespects her as a patient.”
The trigger for Rodríguez’s departure was her response to a budget order from Petro, based on the declaration of emergency due to the imminent El Niño phenomenon. The government asked the Adaptation Fund to transfer more than 1.2 trillion pesos to the National Unit for Disaster Risk Management (UNGRD). However, Rodríguez points out that the public funds are already allocated to major works to regulate flooding in the La Mojana region, scheduled to be executed until 2029.
As manager of the Adaptation Fund, the official said on camera that she was never called to a technical meeting to evaluate the feasibility of the transfer, and that the entity under her charge sent formal alerts to the Presidency, the Ministry of Finance, the UNGRD, the Comptroller’s Office, the Attorney General’s Office, and the Ombudsman’s Office, warning about the allocation of the funds. “For me, there is an alleged abuse of power, an alleged false motivation, and an irregular issuance,” she stated in the interview.
The official also revisited the scandal of Juliana Guerrero, implicated in a separate case for alleged falsification of university degrees. The former DAPRE director reiterated her accusations that Guerrero, without being a public official, pressured officials from various state entities to define contracts, request positions, and move personnel at her whim: “She acted as mistress and lady.” She also said she warned the president about these irregularities and asked him to remove Guerrero from her role as the Executive’s representative on the Popular University of Cesar Council, but the president ignored the recommendation.
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The official linked these accusations to personal security issues and revealed that she took her parents out of the country after a warning that, according to her, was delivered by one of her advisors. She also denounced the removal of a police officer from her security detail and, on national television, held responsible for her security Carlos Carrillo, former director of the UNGRD and a critic of her and Guerrero; Juliana Guerrero herself; Letty Leal, current manager of the Peace Fund; and Raúl Moreno, chief of staff of the Presidency.
The president-elect and major opponent of Petro, Abelardo de la Espriella, joined the conversation after Rodríguez asked him to listen to her, arguing that she has relevant information about the outgoing government. De la Espriella responded on social media instructing his future Minister of the Interior, Rodrigo Lara, and the appointed director of the National Protection Unit (UNP), Didier Blanco, to ensure the protection of the former official from the moment they assume their positions on August 7. “Corruption will have in me its main enemy,” he wrote on his X account.
This is not the first time Rodríguez has been involved in a public clash with the government she is part of. Since April, when she still directed DAPRE and was part of the president’s inner circle, she publicly pointed out the existence of a corruption network allegedly led by Guerrero, and reported to the Prosecutor’s Office that she was a victim of extortion, in a case involving Carrillo. In November 2025, already as outgoing director, she recounted that a group of men entered her parents’ home in Bogotá at dawn and left it destroyed inside.
Angie Rodríguez, who became one of Petro’s closest people, has maintained in various interviews that her protection detail has been insufficient for the level of risk she claims to face, something that the UNP director, Augusto Rodríguez, has publicly denied. Now, with her departure and the new government just days from taking office, the future of her accusations will largely depend on what happens after August 7.
