Colombia’s election financing oversight process has taken an unprecedented step following the recent decision of the National Electoral Council (CNE) to impose sanctions on Petro Presidente’s 2022-2026 campaign for exceeding legal spending limits in the two rounds of the presidential elections.
The investigation, led by Judges Benjamin Ortiz and Álvaro Hernán Prada, concluded that Gustavo Pietro’s campaign exceeded permissible limits by a total of $5,300,000,000. Of this amount, $3,700,000,000 belongs to the first round and was not included in the official reports, while the remaining $1,600,000,000 relates to expenses that were not reported in the second round, the investigating judges confirmed. Over the course of more than a year, the two officials collected evidence and testimony supporting the sanctions report.
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Among the irregularities discovered, Justices Ortiz and Prada highlighted the omission in the report of a contribution made by the teachers’ union Vicode, the contracting of political advertisements on Karakol TV, payments to election witnesses, and a contribution from the National Union (UP). In addition, they identified the use of prohibited sources of funding, such as the contribution of the Ecopetrol Trade Union (USO) and payments to election witnesses made by Ingenial Media SAS.
The decision of the Colombian National Electoral Commission states that the Petro Presidente 2022-2026 campaign committed errors due to omissions in reports and due to receiving resources from unauthorized entities, reinforcing the importance of transparency and compliance with regulations in Colombian electoral processes.
Regarding the decision of the body charged with monitoring electoral processes, Wilson Ruiz, former Minister of Justice, said that Petro should resign from his position as President of the Republic, because in his opinion he lied to an entire country by violating the limits imposed by Colombian law.
“They lied to us from the beginning. Gustavo Petro’s campaign was funded with money from unions, corporations and accounting tricks. They violated boundaries, took prohibited contributions and they knew it.”. They did not care about how to gain power. Thus his government was built on lies. The National Electoral Commission verified election fraud amounting to more than $3.5 billion. “Petro resigns now,” he wrote in X.
In response to Ruiz’s statements, the Colombian president used the same platform to defend his campaign. Pietro indicated in his letter that there was no type of irregularity in his aspiration to the Nariño family.
Petro noted that the Democratic Center Party, the party Ruiz is close to because of its ties to Iván Duque’s administration, received funding from Brazilian multinational Odebrecht for the presidential campaign of Oscar Iván Zuloaga in 2014.
“There are no traps, there is a difference between financing Odebrecht with $50 million to the parties of officials who granted Ruta del Sol II and its intersection, Among them are his; And trade unions, who finance their labor parties, account for 0.1% of this number.”
The CNE punishment sparked a strong reaction from President Gustavo Petro, who did not hesitate to express his opinion online. In a message broadcast on Friday, November 28, he denounced that the decision was made by Major Nay Abu Shihab, whom he described as “Fico’s lawyer” and who, according to Senator Antonio José Correa of the La U party, was the co-judge who cast the main vote in favor of the penalty.
Petro questioned the integrity of the National Electoral Commission, “The imposition of sanctions on us by FICO’s lawyers is unacceptable,” he said. “The National Electoral Council can no longer give us electoral guarantees.” The president also noted that the sanction was intended to deny the legal status of the political movement he leads, and criticized the process by asserting: “None of the points they call overstepping the boundaries, which they have not even read our defense of, are overstepping the bounds.”
Among the data highlighted, Petro emphasized: “The only positive thing in this investigation is that the opposition itself was not able to find a single contribution that could be described as drug trafficking or illegal.” In addition, he defended the transparency of his campaign and warned against attempts by traditional sectors to regain power: “Now the oligarchy and the mafia are seeking to regain power through traps.”
The President concluded his message by calling on citizens to support the electoral campaign for the National Constituent Assembly: “The people will decide whether to return to paramilitary rule or move forward towards a Colombia free of mafia and injustice. The campaign for a National Constituent Assembly begins and needs your signature and a majority in Congress.”