The Colombian president, Gustavo Petro, demanded this Saturday that his American counterpart, Donald Trump, “tell the people of Colombia where Alberto (sic) Coral is,” a left-wing activist detained last Tuesday in the state of Arizona.

“Let them tell us if we are true companions in the fight against drug trafficking, or they only see us as an inferior people to be used, beaten, and tortured economically and politically in the United States. If so, Beto Coral's father, captain of the Colombian police, lost his life for nothing,” Petro said on his X account.

The activist Franklin Humberto 'Beto' Coral is the son of a Colombian police officer who was murdered in an operation against Pablo Escobar and, according to his family, his current location is unknown after being detained by agents of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service (ICE) despite the fact that he had a pending asylum application and had been living in that country since 2015.

“Colombia has sacrificed 15,000 members of the police who died in their youth to prevent US society from consuming cocaine and has sacrificed more than 200,000 murdered Colombians and a million children of Latin America,” Petro added in his defense of Coral.

Last Wednesday, Petro ordered the Colombian Foreign Ministry to intervene with the United States Government to obtain the release of the activist and said that his detention is “a political persecution encouraged by the candidate of the United States, a citizen of the United States.”

In his comment, Petro alluded to the far-right presidential candidate Abelardo de la Espriella, who also has US citizenship and who in recent weeks has publicly denounced dozens of people whom he accuses of buying votes for the left ahead of this Sunday's elections, with the intention of having Washington withdraw their visas.

Beto Coral has expressed criticism of Trump and De la Espriella's candidacy on his social networks, and in the elections on March 8 he was a left-wing candidate for a seat in the House of Representatives for the Colombians Abroad constituency.

According to Petro said today, Coral “is now a political prisoner in the US only because of the political support that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio gave to the genocidal narco-paramilitary defender of the Colombian people, Abelardo de la Espriella, who suggested his capture,” and added that the activist “has been detained and beaten by the US government, separating him from his family.”

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), in charge of immigration control, referred to Coral as an “illegal alien” and assured that he violated US laws by remaining in the country after the expiration of his visa.

Coral's relatives yesterday asked for her release and demanded in a statement that her “fundamental rights” be respected.

According to what they indicated, the activist entered the United States “legally” and presented his request for immigration asylum, due to death threats in Colombia related to drug trafficking, “within the deadlines established by law (…) alleging the risks he faced and requesting protection,” but his case has been pending for ten years for a final decision to be made.