The mayor of Puan, Diego Reyes, and his family received death threats from a municipal employee who called to set fire to his house with them inside. "You have to set fire to the house with him inside or grab the daughter," was the brutal phrase that went viral in the last few hours.
These threats were expressed through a WhatsApp audio that was disseminated among the municipal staff and reached the office of the radical mayor of Juntos por el Cambio.
The Secretary of Government, Franco Mombelli, was the one who publicly announced the threat through a video shared on social networks. This incident took place on the night of January 3. Mombelli reported that a WhatsApp audio was reported circulating in groups of municipal unions, where an already identified person threatened the physical integrity of the mayor, his family and his daughter.
In the audio officially released by the Municipality, the individual urged his colleagues to "go to Bordenave and set fire to the house with the whole family inside," he said and compared the situation with a previous similar episode with another mayor: "Like the hunters did once to López and fifteen minutes later he signed the papers so that they can go hunting."
In addition to insulting and belittling the mayor, he also urged to "slap the daughter" as part of a plan to extort the local president.
"You have to set fire to the house or grab the daughter. To top it all off, I saw her 15 minutes ago in the sports center, she is coming to bathe in the pool. So if they don't slap it here, they have to slap it there in Bordenave," the threatening man continued in the audio.
The message concluded with the suggestion to "set that son of a bitch's house on fire, so he can learn. And at night, when he's sleeping, so that neither the police nor the fire go to turn it off. With him inside."
Mobelli referred to the case as a dangerous situation: "We consider this to be something extremely serious, which we cannot ignore," said the local official. He also confirmed that Mayor Reyes filed a criminal complaint with the Puan Prosecutor's Office.