Colombia’s National Electoral Council (CNE) opened an investigation and filed charges on Tuesday against the nation’s far-left President Gustavo Petro and members of his 2022 presidential campaign for alleged violations of spending limits.
According to the electoral authority, Petro’s campaign stands accused of exceeding the established campaign spending limits and receiving prohibited funding from legal entities in accordance with Colombian law. Petro responded to the accusations by claiming that the investigation is part of a purported “coup” plot to overthrow his leftist government.
Petro, a former member of the Marxist M19 guerilla, took office as Colombia’s first-ever leftist president in August 2022 after defeating outsider businessman Rodolfo Hernández in the June 2022 runoff election with 50.44 percent of the votes. Petro ran as the candidate of the “Historic Pact for Colombia,” a coalition of leftist parties and organizations that includes Humane Colombia, a party founded by Petro.
Following five-month-long proceedings that reportedly included multiple postponements and a four-hour long deliberation period on Tuesday, seven out of CNE’s nine total magistrates voted in favor of presenting charges against Petro, his campaign manager and current CEO of the state-owned oil company Ecopetrol Ricardo Roa, and three other individuals that worked in the president’s 2022 campaign. The charges involved the “alleged violation of the financing regime of electoral campaigns” across both rounds of the election.
In addition to Petro and the four former top members of his campaign, the Humane Colombia party and Patriotic Union — a party founded by members of the Marxist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) terrorist organization — are also part of the investigation. According to CNE’s statement, both parties were designated by the Historic Pact for Colombia coalition as responsible for the audit and presentation of income and expense reports of the Colombian President’s campaign to the corresponding authorities.
During the first round of the election, CNE detailed through its press release, Petro’s campaign allegedly overspent some 3.7 billion Colombian pesos (roughly $876,750) by omitting to properly report several contributions, loans, and payments made by the campaign at the time.
The alleged overspending of Petro’s campaign during the second round of the election, CNE further explained, totaled some $1.64 billion pesos (roughly $389,100) and stems from the campaign’s omission in payment and contributions reports.
In addition, the electoral authority accused Petro’s campaign of having engaged in prohibited financing by receiving several contributions from legal entities in violation of the law — accusing the Humane Colombia and Patriotic Union parties of allegedly allowing said prohibited financing.
Minutes after CNE made its announcement, Petro claimed that “the coup has begun” through a post made on his official Twitter account.
Shortly afterwards, the Colombian far-left president addressed the nation to dismiss the electoral authority’s accusations against him and his campaign, claiming that the charges violate “our constitution and my immunity.”
“Today, the integral jurisdiction of the President of the Republic of Colombia, who defends the Constitution, has been broken. Today the first step of a coup d’état against me as constitutional president,” Petro said during his official Tuesday evening broadcast, “democratically elected by popular vote by more than 11 million citizens, has been taken. If carried out, this act would represent the greatest affront to our democracy in the history of the country.”
Petro claimed that the charges presented against his campaign are “unfounded” and asked CNE’s Investigation and Accusation Commission chamber to make the case’s file public and the evidence contained therein because, Petro asserted, “it is through evidence that I claim my innocence and censure the illegal and unconstitutional conduct of the National Electoral Council.”
CNE’s head César Lorduy dismissed Petro’s coup plot accusations and denied any political motives behind the investigation in an interview given to Caracol Noticias on Wednesday morning, where he explained that in no case can the CNE remove the President of the Republic.
“If the investigation determines that the events actually occurred, there will be a financial penalty for those responsible for the electoral campaign,” Lorduy said. “With regards to the president, our jurisdiction is only, solely and exclusively, in the financial aspect, that is, a fine.”
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
