EFE | THE HOMELAND | Bogota
Two magistrates of the National Electoral Council (CNE) presented a presentation favorable to that charges be brought against the Colombian president, Gustavo Petroalready one of his collaborators for the alleged irregular financing of his campaign and the possible violation of the electoral spending cap.
The CNE magistrates Álvaro Hernán Prada and Benjamín Ortiz, who are in charge of the investigation, filed the presentation that also requests that charges be filed against Ricardo Roa, president of Ecopetrol and who was his campaign manageras revealed this Wednesday by local media.
After hearing the news, The Colombian president stated: “The soft coup has begun,” and hinted that it is a political persecution.
The presentation presented by the two magistrates will be discussed by the full chamber of the CNE, made up of nine members, which They will decide if they admit it to continue with the processfor which they need the votes of at least five magistrates, or if, on the contrary, they file it.
At the moment, the CNE has not commented on the matter and it is unknown when said vote could be carried out.
This case dates back to February 2023 when the CNE opened a preliminary investigation against Petro’s presidential campaign for alleged irregularities in its financing.
According to what that organization reported then, The investigation was opened “based on the anonymous complaint filed for alleged irregularities in the financing and presentation of income and expense reports of the presidential first and second round electoral campaign” of the Historical Pact, the coalition that brought Petro to the Presidency in 2022.
Last May 1, in his speech for Labor Day, Petro, who For months he has been talking about the possibility of a “soft coup” against himstated that that alleged attempt is being cooked “It is not with the war tanks on the presidential palace” but by accusing him of exceeding the electoral spending limits.
As he said then, his opponents “now want to say that the popular movement, the Historical Pact and the candidate Petro exceeded the limits because the teachers’ union of the Colombian Federation of Educators (Fecode) contributed money to the Colombia Humana political party“.
This Wednesday he returned with that speech and in a message published on his X account criticized that “donations to parties such as those made by (the group) Keralty to the Democratic Center” have no implicationsbut those from unions to his Colombia Humana party “make them irregular when they are permitted by law” and expenses after the election “are presented as if they were within the campaign.”
In that sense, he explained that Expenses on electoral witnesses that parties make on election day to “take care of the votes already cast (…) which is a citizen’s right and obligation” should not be counted as campaign expenses because these end earlier.
