If the window into a person’s character can be their credit card statement, then the president of Colombia has some explaining to do.
Gustavo Petro, the left-wing leader and fierce critic of the extremes of consumerism, seems to have a penchant for fashion brands such as Gucci, Ralph Lauren, Prada and occasionally frequents strip clubs.
This startling revelation came earlier this week after the president has decided to fight President Trump’s claims that he is a drug dealer. To disprove the story, Petro ordered all of his bank and credit card statements to be released.
“I’ve decided to make my entire long but frugal financial history public,” he posted on X.
At first glance, this seemed like a shrewd move. The 30 pages of statements confirmed that his modest finances were hardly on the level of a drug trafficker. His total income over the past three years, according to the documents, consists mainly of his official salary and is around £270,000. That’s less than the most notorious Colombian drug kingpin, Pablo Escobar, ever earned in a week.
But the devil is in the details
Accompanying credit card statements show that the former Marxist partisan has acquired some decidedly capitalist tastes. In 2023, there was €1,250 spent in a Gucci store in Portugal. There were also purchases at Italian fabric store Casa dei Tessuti, as well as Ralph Lauren, Apple and Saks Fifth Avenue.
And then, in awkwardly indiscreet capital letters, came a remarkable accusation: “MÉNAGE STRIP CLUB” in Lisbon: where Petro had spent the equivalent of €40. It appears the president visited the club on the same day in 2023 that he went to Gucci. According to his official diary, he was on a “working visit” to Spain at the time, not Portugal.
Ménage is hidden in a side street in the tourist heart of Lisbon. It advertises its dancers as part of an all-round “unforgettable experience” for customers. The amount Petro seems to have spent there covers about two of their exotic cocktails.
The fact that the president apparently ended his busy day of shopping in Europe with a visit to a strip club has been seized upon by the political opposition in Colombia, who are happy to expose the obvious hypocrisy of it all.
“There is simply no presidential dignity left” said Vicky Davila, one of the conservative front-runners for next year’s bitter elections in which Petro, Colombia’s first left-wing leader, is barred from running for a second consecutive term.
The politician has since admitted he was at the club. Writing in X, he said teasingly:
“Someday I’ll explain why I spent 40 euros on this place.”
But he didn’t stop there
Later, 65-year-old Petro returned to the issue. He said he saw no need to pay for sex “as long as I’m still capable of seduction and poetry.”
The scandal cast unwanted attention on Petro’s wife, the first lady, Veronica Alcoser. She and Petro’s eldest son, Nicholas, were also indicted by the United States last week in connection with drug trafficking in the state and were sanctioned. They deny the claim.
On Thursday, Trump said that because Alcocer had been sanctioned, she could not return to Colombia from a visit to Sweden. He did not specify what the exact problem was.
Alcocer herself, who split with Petro, has also been mired in controversy since was photographed in Stockholm earlier this month leading an apparently elegant lifestyle – or at least one that contrasted sharply with the picture of austerity that Petro had presented as the norm at home.
Its presence in Sweden coincided with the conclusion of negotiations between the Colombian government and Swedish aerospace and defense company Saab to acquire 17 of its Gripen fighter jets, a contract worth £2.7bn.
The Colombian opposition suggested that perhaps she somehow benefited from the deal and was therefore in Sweden.
Petro angrily rejected the offer.
“To say we got kickbacks is a total outrage,” he said Wednesday.
Unfazed by the embarrassment of his credit card statement, the president hinted that he is a convert to transparency. Referring to the fighter jet deal, he said he had asked for “all details of the contract to be published”.
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