Colombian President Gustavo Petro released his bank statements to counter U.S. allegations of financial wrongdoing, but the records included a $50 charge at a Lisbon strip club from a May 2023 official trip. Women's rights groups criticized the finding, and Petro's dismissive social-media reply drew further ire. The episode comes amid strained U.S.-Colombia relations and past court rulings requiring Petro to apologize for remarks about female journalists.
Petro's Bank Records Trigger Backlash After $50 Lisbon Strip-Club Charge Revealed
Colombian President Gustavo Petro released his bank statements to counter U.S. allegations of financial wrongdoing, but the records included a $50 charge at a Lisbon strip club from a May 2023 official trip. Women's rights groups criticized the finding, and Petro's dismissive social-media reply drew further ire. The episode comes amid strained U.S.-Colombia relations and past court rulings requiring Petro to apologize for remarks about female journalists.
09:32 AM, 11/21/2025Politics
Colombian President Gustavo Petro released his bank statements this week to rebut allegations from the United States about financial wrongdoing. Instead, the disclosure prompted domestic controversy when the records showed a $50 charge at a Lisbon strip club during an official trip in May 2023.
The entry—recorded as a payment at the Menage club—drew criticism from women's rights groups who say the finding is at odds with efforts to combat sexual exploitation in Colombia.
"How is it possible that we have a sexual exploitation crisis in Colombia and at the same time a president who frequents such places?" asked Sara Jaramillo of the Medellín Abolitionist Network, which campaigns against exploitative sex work.
Petro's response on X (formerly Twitter) further inflamed debate. In a post that many users deemed tone-deaf, he wrote: "There are two things I've learned in life: not to sleep with a woman for whom I feel nothing in my heart and not to buy sex when I'm still capable of seduction."
Petro on the Lisbon charge: "I will explain some day why I was at the Menage strip club in Lisbon." During the same trip, he also met Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa at Belém Palace.
Legal and political context has amplified the reaction. Colombian courts have previously ordered Petro to apologize for remarks deemed derogatory toward women after he referred to critical female reporters as "dolls of the mafia." At the same time, relations with the United States have cooled: President Donald Trump has publicly accused Petro—without presenting evidence—of links to drug trafficking and revoked Colombia's certification as a partner in narcotics-control efforts.
Petro said he published his transactions to demonstrate transparency and to show what he called "the arbitrariness being committed against Colombia" by foreign authorities. The disclosure has renewed scrutiny of both his personal conduct and the broader political dispute with Washington.