Colombian President Gustavo Petro stated Wednesday that a lobby linked to the far right is being orchestrated from Florida in the United States, seeking to influence Republican President Donald Trump.

Speaking at a press conference, Petro said the lobby is using Colombian criminals to fabricate a narrative against him while protecting its own political interests in the United States.

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Petro pointed to photographs showing Abelardo de la Espriella, a far-right Colombian presidential candidate, alongside Jorge Luis Hernández Villazón, alias “Boliche,” a former drug trafficker. According to Petro, the images prove that the same people who accuse him of drug ties are themselves linked to organized crime.

“While the media accuses me of being a drug lord without any evidence — because there is none — look at these photos of Colombian mobsters in Miami,” Petro said. He added that these individuals are “part of the same lobby with Florida’s far right to deceive President Donald Trump.”

The Colombian president reaffirmed his government’s full cooperation with U.S. and international law enforcement to dismantle drug trafficking networks. He also noted that the photographs include a lawyer named Peñarredonda, who works for a candidate’s law firm and has been identified as “Co-conspirator One” in a U.S. court case.

Petro then addressed security for political candidates, saying, “President Donald Trump has asked me — and it is my constitutional duty — to protect the two far-right candidates. Of course I will, them and everyone else.”

He added that the real threat is not against him but against fellow presidential candidate Iván Cepeda, referring to an alleged assassination plot. “We now know where the real threat against Iván Cepeda comes from,” Petro said without elaborating further.

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