Colombia's democratic socialist president claimed Tuesday afternoon that he escaped an assassination attempt on Monday night, after years of warning about assassination plots against him.

AFP News reports that Colombian President Gustavo Petro narrowly escaped an assassination attempt after his helicopter reportedly could not land at a location on the South American country's Caribbean coast because gunmen were allegedly ready to open fire upon landing.

"We headed out to open sea for four hours, and I arrived somewhere we weren't supposed to go, escaping from being killed," Petro stated in a cabinet meeting on live television.

He warned that the incident is part of a longer-running assassination plot by drug traffickers that he says has targeted him since he took office in August 2022.

Petro suggested in 2024 that the commander of the Estado Mayor Central rebel group had planned to assassinate him with snipers.

For some context, EMC is a dissident group of the now-demobilized Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) that rejected a 2016 peace deal with the government.

Petro's latest assassination plot claim comes ahead of presidential elections, with Petro barred by the constitution from seeking a second term. 

According to Bloomberg, Colombia's two top presidential candidates - conservative lawyer Abelardo de la Espriella and leftist senator Iván Cepeda - are neck and neck in the latest poll data ahead of the election on May 31.

De la Espriella has about 32.1% support, compared to Cepeda's 31.4%, in the AtlasIntel poll for Semana newspaper. Former Antioquia governor Sergio Fajardo trails with about 7.6%.

Meanwhile, South American politics has shifted sharply in President Trump's second term, with right-wing movements gaining traction across the continent, from Argentina to Chile, after years of failed socialist and communist governments.

The Maduro regime's fall last month may shape the Colombian elections this spring towards a right-wing.