Angie Rodríguez, who spent nearly a year as one of former Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s closest aides, has come forward with explosive claims about how his administration handled a credentials scandal that recently led to a court sentencing Juliana Guerrero to three years in prison for submitting fake academic degrees.
Rodríguez, who served as director of the Dapre—the administrative department that runs the Colombian presidency, roughly equivalent to a chief of staff’s office—told the newspaper El Tiempo that Petro personally pressured her to process Guerrero’s appointment as vice minister of youth affairs, even after she warned him the young woman’s resume didn’t hold up.
According to Rodríguez, she initially discovered Guerrero had no verifiable degree from the university she claimed to attend. When she raised concerns, Petro allegedly grew irritated and showed her a phone photo of supposed diplomas to prove she was wrong. But Rodríguez says she immediately spotted inconsistencies—mismatched dates between the graduation certificate and diploma—and told the president directly that the documents were fraudulent.
Despite that warning, Rodríguez says Petro insisted the paperwork move forward, and Guerrero’s resume was republished under the principle that applicants are responsible for the accuracy of their own submitted information. Rodríguez alleges a broader pattern of irregular hiring involving Guerrero and other women that the former president allowed to continue.
Read the full interview at El Tiempo for more details on this unfolding controversy.
Source: ‘Gustavo Petro tenía pleno conocimiento de que los títulos de Juliana Guerrero eran falsos’: Angie Rodríguez (eltiempo.com). English version produced with AI assistance.
Image: Peer.Gynt, BY-SA 2.0 (via Openverse).