Gustavo Petro published a fake news story about Argentina: 'There are lootings on the outskirts of Buenos Aires.'

The president of Colombia, the communist Gustavo Petro, once again made a fool of himself this Friday after spreading false information on social media about the social situation in Argentina.

Through his official account on the X network, the far-left president claimed that lootings were taking place in "the outskirts of Buenos Aires", a claim that doesn't correspond to the current reality and that triggered a swift reaction from users and political analysts.

The message was posted from the verified profile of the Colombian head of state, which has more than 8 million followers, and it was accompanied by a video corresponding to a news report broadcast by a Chilean television channel.

In his post, Petro wrote: "Argentine citizens are launching themselves to loot food establishments in the outskirts of Buenos Aires", implying that these were recent events that occurred during the current government of Javier Milei.

The dissemination of this content quickly caused controversy, since the video used by the Colombian president doesn't correspond to the current context. It is a report prepared in August 2023, during the Kirchnerist government of Alberto Fernández, by the Chilean channel Meganoticias, whose videograph clearly states: "Wave of lootings in Argentina".

The report was broadcast in a completely different political and social context, when Argentina was governed by Alberto Fernández and Cristina Kirchner, and it was in the final stretch of the electoral process that led to the change of government. However, that detail was not clarified in the message posted by Petro, which led numerous users to point out that it was false information.

The profile from which Petro made the post has the institutional checkmark that identifies him as president of Colombia, which reinforces the official nature of the false message. This point was one of the most criticized by the users who replied to the post.

The users' responses

After the post, the responses were not long in coming. Numerous users warned the Colombian communist president that the video correplied to events that took place in 2023 and not to the present. Despite this, so far, Petro hasn't corrected or deleted the message.