They are investigating Gustavo Petro for illegal financing of his campaign and he speaks of the “start of a coup d’état”

The National Electoral Council (CNE) of Colombia decided this Tuesday “open investigation and file a complaint against the president’s campaign Gustavo Petro in 2022 by alleged irregularitiesreported the president of this organization, César Lorduy.

The CNE considers Petro, as a candidate; his campaign manager, Ricardo Roa, and other members of his team must answer for “allegations violation of the electoral campaign financing regime”because it is suspected that they exceeded established spending limits and resorted to prohibited sources that they did not declare.

The CNE’s decision is consistent with the presentation that called for indicting President Petro’s campaign for alleged violation of spending limits.

According to the press release read by Lorduy, the Plenary Chamber of the CNE “decided by majority to open an investigation and file a complaint against the presidential campaign first and second round of the Historic Pact coalition, represented by citizens Gustavo Francisco Petro Urrego, candidate; Ricardo Roa Barragán, campaign manager; Lucy Aydee Mogollón Alfonso, treasurer; María Lucy Soto Caro and Juan Carlos Lemus Gómez, auditors.”

Likewise, this affects the Colombia Humana political movement, to which Petro belongs, and the left-wing political party Unión Patriótica.

“In this decree, the candidate, the campaign director, the treasurer and the auditors are accused of the alleged violation of the spending limit in the campaign first round for the sum of 3,709,361,342 pesos (approximately $878,000 today),” added the CNE.

According to the CNE, Petro’s presidential campaign have not declared in their accounts to this set of contributions for the first electoral round, held on May 29, 2022, of the Colombian Federation of Educators (Fecode), the Polo Democrático Alternativo party and the Union Sindical Obrera (USO), nor of the expenses of payment in the elections and propaganda witnesses, among others.

Regarding the second electoral round, held on June 19, 2022, Petro’s campaign, according to the CNE, would also have violated “the spending limit for the sum of 1,646,386,773 pesos (approximately $389,541 today).

This money apparently came from donations from the Colombia Humana party and the USO, and was spent on payments for his presidential election celebration partyto election witnesses and in air transport, among others.

Finally, the National Electoral Council also indicated that it had filed a complaint against the Colombia Humana Political Movement and the Patriotic Union for “allegedly allowing the financing of the presidential campaign with prohibited sources of financing.”

These sources would be legal entities, in this case the same unions Fecode and USO, as well as the company Ingenial Media SAS.

A “coup d’état”

The CNE decision does not specify Petro’s degree of responsibility for the alleged electoral irregularities, nor whether the accusations are made in his own name or as a member of the campaign team.

A few minutes after learning of the CNE’s decision, Petro assured on his X account that “the coup has begun”a theory that he has used for months to assert that this body cannot investigate the president of the republic, whose natural judge is the Impeachments Commission of the House of Representatives.

A few hours later, the president published a video on the same social network in which he denies the accusations and assures that, “if this act of the CNE takes place, would represent the greatest affront to our democracy in the history of the country.

“The CNE, an administrative body infiltrated by the same politicians who governed our country for decades, filed a complaint against me. clearly violates our constitution and my jurisdiction. I want to deny the main accusations that the CNE has made against me,” he declares at the beginning.

First, he claims that the alleged contributions from the USO and Fecode were made to the Colombia Humana party and not to his campaign. Likewise, he maintains that the alleged compensation paid to election witnesses “does not correspond to campaign expenses.”

“All electoral propaganda campaign expenses were presented on time. This was certified by the external audit undertaken by the CNE itself,” he assures.

Thirdly, he declares that the CNE magistrates “confuse the flight authorizations, which were not necessarily used by the campaign” and affirms that “all the invoices presented correspond to the services provided by the Sadi company, but they ignored them.”

Finally, he admits that the event to celebrate his electoral victory “had some expenses”, but “was no longer part of the campaign period“This is what the law establishes.”

Petro reaffirms that “the accusations made by the CNE are unfounded” and criticizes the fact that “I find myself facing an administrative authority captured by the opposition which seeks at all costs to call into question my integrity”.

This is why, in the video, he announces that requested that the investigation file be made publicsince “it is through proof that I proclaim my innocence and that I censure the illegal and unconstitutional behavior of the CNE”.

The Colombian president made a call for “the widespread mobilization of the Colombian people” for the defense of democracy. »