Armando Benedetti: "We all sink, we are going prisoner"

Armando Benedetti, the day he was appointed ambassador in Caracas, in 2022.Andrea Hernández Briceño

Armando Benedetti wants to see the world burn. The recently dismissed ambassador of Venezuela assures in some audios sent to Laura Sarabia, also fallen in disgrace, that if he talked about what happened in the electoral campaign of Gustavo Petro they could all go to prison. "It's not sucking, it's not threatening, because you know me. I'm not going to let myself suck, Laura, I swear for the lives of my children that will never happen. We all sank. We're all done. We are going prisoner, we finish all the fucking shame," he is heard saying in the recordings to which Semana magazine has had access.

Benedetti and Sarabia, who until a few days ago formed Petro's inner circle, have been dismissed this week by the president after both were entangled in a case of illegal wiretapping and leaks to the press. The audios that come to light now reveal the deep enmity that was generated between Benedetti and Sarabia, who accompanied Petro day and night during the campaign. Benedetti believes that the president and she, his chief of staff, have not kept loyalty to him, have separated him in Caracas and have forgotten him politically.

The ambassador, according to these WhatsApp messages, has bombarded Sarabia, who before working with Petro was his secretary for seven years, with complaints. Benedetti feels humiliated because he asked for an appointment with the president at Casa de Nariño, the presidential residence, and they had him waiting for three hours: "What I'm telling you, Laura, is that this treatment (...) And yesterday the president: 'no, no, I am eager.' Aha, faggot, I did 100 meetings (...) 15,000 million pesos, what's more, if it's not for me they don't win. So, even if I am hypocritical, one goes and receives the people, but the treatment that you and the president gave me yesterday, faggot, I do not know, in addition, what I am going to tell you is not a threat (...) I see that this can make me a fuck, I kick you little whore, and there we all fall little whore, "he told Sarabia out of his mind.

The politician feels humiliated for having spent hours in the Palace waiting for Petro – a man who does not stand out precisely for his punctuality – and ends up talking about how he was in charge of collecting the votes for the president on the coast, which was fundamental in the victory: "Sorry, Laura, but one also explodes, is that they pass quality, I was the one who organized all the votes, little, on the Coast, all, little, without putting a peso and also that money went to the Pacific. Who sees that now? Nothing. Or do you want me to say, little, who was the one who put the money? Don't fuck my fucking life, don't fuck my life, because what happened yesterday and before (was) bullshit Laura, from you and from the president."

He then issues a warning of what can happen if they do not respect him: "Get ready because at any time I claim my political space (...). And if you think it's a threat, it's a threat and if you want to record it, record it, I explode because yesterday you mistreated me like shit and that's not done to Benedetti." On Twitter, he has assured that the audios are manipulated and apologizes to the president and Sarabia.

His anger and thirst for destruction is such that he compares himself to the founder of Al Qaeda. "With so much shit that I know, well fuck us all, yes, you fuck me, I fuck you, but the twin towers fall. (...) Osama Bin Laden, when he knocked down the twin towers, he didn't give a damn about the image and whether or not they were going to kill him, but he knocked down the twin towers," he is heard saying. He also resorts to his wilder side: "The tiger has to be left a way out because, if not, it throws itself on top of people. And you know that I am a tiger who, with no way out, suddenly throws myself on top of people," Benedetti told Sarabia.

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