Colombia’s new president ordered the military on Saturday to open an “exhaustive investigation” into claims that a former first lady secretly flew to Venezuela on official aircraft. The allegations remain unproven, but raise a basic democratic question: whether officials used state resources for private gain, and who must answer for it.
President Abelardo De La Espriella instructed the Air Force commander to investigate events described by news magazine Semana. The Air Force’s Inspector General and counter-intelligence units will examine current and former crews of CATAM, the military air transport command that operates official aircraft. De La Espriella said the military would remove any members found involved and require them to answer in court.
What Is Being Alleged
The claims come from Eva Ferrer, a Spanish political strategist who worked on Gustavo Petro’s 2022 campaign communications team, later served as a presidential adviser, and also advised Verónica Alcocer personally. In a lengthy interview with Semana journalist Vicky Dávila, published 10 October 2026, Ferrer called Alcocer the hidden head of a group that used presidential power for profit. Asked if Alcocer led a mafia, Ferrer replied, “As of today, I say yes.”
Her most specific claim concerns a January 2023 trip to Venezuela. Ferrer said Manel Grau, a Catalan businessman close to Alcocer, told her Alcocer returned with US$2.5 million, some of which was intended for a campaign by Mario Fernández Alcocer, a politician and Alcocer’s cousin. Ferrer also said, “It seems there are photos of Verónica getting off the plane with grey suitcases that had drugs inside.” She didn’t produce the photos. Asked whether state aircraft were used, Ferrer said the flights were on “the presidential one or the first lady’s one.” She also accused Alcocer’s circle of selling jobs in state agencies, including the oil company Ecopetrol, and linked people around Alcocer to arms dealing.
The claims haven’t been proven. Ferrer hasn’t publicly produced documents or the photos she described, and no one named has faced charges. Her account of the US$2.5 million relies on what she says Grau told her. It’s unknown whether official flight records support her version.
Doubts and Denials
Ferrer said she spoke out because she feared for her safety. She told Semana that a caller once asked whether she wanted to be shot, and that she had spent two months in hiding.
The account has complications. Veteran journalist María Jimena Duzán wrote on X that Ferrer gave her a “different version” in a podcast interview on 14 August, and suggested the later interviews were intended to pressure Alcocer’s circle into paying fees Ferrer says she’s owed. In that August interview, Ferrer said she was owed four months of fees and denied threatening anyone to get money or a job.
Alcocer has denied Ferrer’s earlier accusations. After Semana published audio recordings of Ferrer in August, Alcocer wrote to Attorney General Luz Adriana Camargo that the claims “lack any basis and do not correspond to reality,” and offered to cooperate with prosecutors. Petro, still president at the time, called the reports slander that should prompt criminal action, La Silla Vacía reported. Congressman Agmeth Escaf, also accused by Ferrer, said she had attributed “very serious crimes” to him without public evidence, and that a civil lawsuit and criminal libel complaint against her were under way. By Sunday morning, Alcocer and Petro hadn’t publicly addressed the latest flight and drug claims.
Institutions Asked to Act
De La Espriella, a conservative lawyer who succeeded Petro in August, also asked the Attorney General’s Office, the Supreme Court and the Procuraduría, the public-conduct watchdog, to act within their powers. He made the same request of “the authorities of the United States.” The Attorney General’s Office hadn’t said by Saturday whether it would open a case, and what U.S. agencies might do remains unclear.
Conservative lawmakers acted quickly. Senator Christian Garcés of Centro Democrático urged Attorney General Camargo to open an inquiry on her own initiative. Senator Germán Rodríguez of Salvación Nacional said Alcocer could end up in prison.
The allegations come amid an existing U.S. sanctions case. On 24 October 2025, the U.S. Treasury designated Alcocer, Petro, Petro’s eldest son Nicolás Petro and former minister Armando Benedetti under counter-narcotics rules. Colombian media reported that all four remained on the list after a recent update. Their U.S. assets are blocked, and U.S. persons generally can’t deal with them.
Why This Matters:
Whether Ferrer’s claims hold up or not, citizens have every right to an answer, backed by records rather than rhetoric, about who flies on public aircraft and why. Flight logs and crew accounts could settle part of this quickly. That’s the purpose of an independent inquiry. Yet the evidence so far is thin: no documents, no photos, a single source relaying secondhand claims, and a witness whose earlier account has faced questions. Accountability only works when people trust it. If the inquiry looks like a political weapon wielded by a new government against its predecessor, it’ll erode confidence in the institutions meant to police power. If the courts and watchdogs named by the president run it transparently, officials from any party could be held to the same rules.