Colombian President Gustavo Petro said on Tuesday that he had survived an assassination attempt on Monday during a helicopter trip.

During a cabinet meeting broadcast live, Mr. Petro explained that the helicopter carrying him could not land as planned in the department of Cordoba, on the Colombian Caribbean coast, because his security team "feared" that "the aircraft would be shot at."

"We were out at sea for four hours and I ended up somewhere unexpected, fleeing to avoid being killed," he explained.

The left-wing president, in power since 2022, has been claiming for months that a "new drug trafficking junta" wants to assassinate him.

This alleged plot would include drug traffickers living outside the country and local guerrillas, such as Ivan Mordisco, the country's most wanted criminal who leads the main dissident faction of the ex-FARC guerrillas who did not sign the 2016 peace agreement.

Cordoba is home to the Clan del Golfo, the country's largest drug cartel, which last week announced its decision to suspend ongoing peace talks in Qatar, initiated in September with the government.

The cartel was thus reacting to the joint decision by Mr. Petro and his American counterpart Donald Trump, during their first meeting in Washington, to prioritize military actions against three leaders of criminal organizations involved in drug trafficking, including Chiquito Malo, head of the Clan del Golfo.

Gustavo Petro, the country's first left-wing president, had already denounced an alleged assassination attempt in 2024.

His announcement comes amid a resurgence of political violence three months before the next Colombian presidential election. The Constitution prohibits the incumbent president from seeking a second term.

Mr. Petro also announced the kidnapping of indigenous senator Aida Quilcué on Tuesday in a guerrilla-held area in southwestern Colombia.

Many left-wing political or social leaders have been assassinated in the past in Colombia, including presidential candidates, victims of drug traffickers, paramilitary groups or the army.