Colombian prosecutors have charged former foreign minister Laura Sarabia with abusing her power after she had her nanny subjected to a lie detector test over allegedly missing cash. The case, which first emerged in 2023 when Sarabia was chief of staff to President Gustavo Petro, has followed her through a series of senior government roles and now brings formal legal consequences for one of Petro's closest former aides.

The scandal broke after Colombian magazine Semana reported that nanny Marelbys Meza had been taken by Sarabia's driver to a government building and questioned by police using a polygraph over a case of cash, reportedly worth several thousand dollars, that went missing from Sarabia's flat. Meza, who described the experience as feeling like "a kidnapping", denied any wrongdoing during the test and has maintained her innocence since. Prosecutors say Sarabia improperly used state resources and police to pursue a personal matter unrelated to her official duties; Sarabia, 32, resigned as chief of staff in June 2023 but went on to serve as foreign minister and later as ambassador to the UK, and has rejected the accusation without elaborating further.