Source confirms that Duque called Ambassador Francisco Santos to Bogotá to explain dialogue with Claudia Blum

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(CNN Spanish) - A source from the Casa de Nariño confirmed to CNN that Colombian President Iván Duque “asked the ambassador in Washington, Francisco Santos, to come to the country to explain the circumstances and context in which There was a conversation with the designated Chancellor Claudia Blum ”and today it was made public by the free distribution newspaper Publimetro .

CNN has not been able to establish how or who recorded the conversation between the two officials, which Santos himself accepted in conversation with the local radio station W Radio as true and what happened in a private room at a hotel in Washington.

“Sometimes the foreign ministers have to travel and one has to find them where they are. She asked me to go there, we found a private place. What worries me is that the audio sounds perfect. That means they recorded it on my phone. I don't know how they recorded it because it was a place where we were both alone, ”Santos told W.

In the conversation, published in the Publimetro edition on Wednesday, Santos and Blum refer to several sensitive issues for Colombia's foreign policy, such as the role of the US State Department. in the crisis in Venezuela, the situation of the Lima Group, the management of the former Minister of Defense, Guillermo Botero, and the former chancellor and now Minister of Defense, Carlos Holmes Trujillo.

In a separate audio broadcast by La W you hear:

Francisco Santos: “I want them to know you (Claudia Blum) and we are putting together a strategic agenda, because Carlos (Holmes Trujillo) did nothing. I didn't have a strategy. ”

Claudia Blum: "No, I was doing politics."

The defense minister, Carlos Holmes Trujillo, told several Colombian media on Wednesday, when leaving a meeting at the Casa de Nariño, that he had not had the opportunity to listen to the recording. That he has "very good friendship with Santos" and that only President Iván Duque can judge his work at the head of the Foreign Ministry.

In his defense, Santos has cataloged the conversation of "presenting a report from an official to his boss", in which "there is absolutely nothing serious, nothing complex and nothing complicated."

In another section of the conversation published by Publimetro , Ambassador Santos speaks to the designated Foreign Minister Claudia Blum about the role of the United States in the Venezuelan crisis:

“I am putting together an agenda for visiting congressmen to see the border and see drugs next year. We are going to do that. We are going to do that and do not miss the importance of Venezuela in Washington. That they understand that this crap will destabilize the entire continent, because here there is no memory. It's that here, after 10 minutes they get bored and go to another topic. It's my turn to invent things for them to have in the top of mind (in the head) Venezuela. That is the task with which I am with Venezuela. ”

About the US Department of State, Santos is heard telling Blum in the audio:

“Here the State Department, which was very important, is destroyed. Does not exist. Does not exist. Trump put Tillerson and Tillerson came out with a spurt of drool. Ten years ago I came here. I came to the USA a lot. a lot because I was the one who handled Human Rights ... Then I came to the State Department and one knew how that worked, but the entrance was always to the State Department. One knew that this was predictable, that this was so. Today that is over. ”

CNN is trying to contact those involved in this controversial conversation directly. Both Santos and Blum and also get some reaction
State Department officer. So far we have not received answers.

Several opposition sectors in Colombia request the resignation of Ambassador Santos and that the designated foreign minister does not take office, due to the international implications that this leak can have due to the seriousness of the things that were discussed there. Congressmen Katherine Miranda and Juanita Goebertus, of the Green Alliance party, for example, have expressed this publicly.

Francisco SantosIván DuquePolémica