Colombian President Gustavo Petro has been plunged into a major scandal after official spending records exposed a $50 payment made at a Lisbon strip club during an official state visit.
A Bid for Transparency Backfires
The revelation came after President Petro took the bold step of publicly releasing his financial records. This move was a direct attempt to prove his innocence to the US President after Washington DC had labelled him a drug trafficker. The US administration froze his accounts by placing him on the notorious Clinton List.
However, the strategy backfired spectacularly. As the public and media pored over the documents, a relatively small charge stood out among pages of luxury purchases from brands like Gucci and Prada. The records showed a $50 (approximately £35) tab paid in May 2023 at the Ménage Strip Club, located in Lisbon's vibrant nightlife district of Cais do Sodré.
Philosophical Defence and Defiant Proclamations
Facing a firestorm of criticism, President Petro took to social media to address the strip club visit with a philosophical explanation. On Wednesday, he posted: 'There are two things I've learned in life: not to sleep with a woman who doesn't make anything blossom in my heart, and not to buy sex when I'm still capable of seduction and poetry.'
He added, 'Sexuality should always be combined with culture – that's called eroticism.' The President insisted he had hidden nothing and vowed that 'someday' he would explain the reason for spending '40 euros at that place.'
Petro then shifted focus, arguing that the real issue was the 'arbitrariness' of the United States towards Colombia. He blasted the US decision to remove Colombia from the list of nations deemed to be doing enough to combat drug trafficking.
In a second, defiant declaration, he stated, 'I don't need to buy sex, I don't like it. I still have some seductive ability that allows me to avoid resorting to those practices of sad men.'
A Pattern of Controversy and a First Lady Under Fire
This is not the first time President Petro has waded into controversial sexual territory. In a live-broadcast Cabinet meeting last September, he stunned viewers by proclaiming, 'A free woman does what she wants with her clitoris and her brain, and if she knows how to balance the two, she will be a great woman.'
The scandal was further fuelled by separate allegations concerning the luxurious lifestyle of Colombia's first lady, Veronica Alcocer. Petro defended her, stating she 'does not spend a single peso of Colombian public funds and has rights and freedoms.' He also criticised the 'rudeness' of including her on the Clinton List.
In a surprising twist, the Colombian President revealed that the pair had separated 'years ago,' a statement that has reignited doubts and questions over her official status as first lady.
