Colombia’s Petro Accused Of Attempting Coup To Block Trump-Backed Espriella
Colombia’s president-elect suspended the ongoing transition process with President Gustavo Petro on Tuesday, accusing the outgoing leader of plotting a coup to stay in power.
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Petro denied the legitimacy of President-elect Abelardo de la Espriella’s victory in the June 21 runoff election on Monday, claiming that Espriella’s defeat of the left-wing candidate, Senator Iván Cepeda, was fraudulent, according to the Associated Press (AP). Right-wing candidate Espriella, who was endorsed by President Donald Trump, defeated Cepeda by a narrow margin of one percent. Petro was the first leftist candidate elected president in Colombia’s history. (RELATED: ‘I Am The Tiger’: Trump-Backed US Citizen Set To Take Power In Colombia, Wants Mega Prisons Filled With Thugs)
Espriella alleged Tuesday that Petro and Cepeda were attempting to “cling to power at all costs” via “a coup de etat” in a video posted online, the AP reported. “Democracy must be respected, and the will of the people must be defended,” Espriella wrote, according to a translation.
Petro alleged there was “evidence of an electoral fraud via algorithms and with prohibited foreign financing in our constitution,” in a Monday post on X, according to a translation. “We have suffered the hardest blow to national sovereignty since the Spanish reconquest during the years of the Patria Boba.”
Espriella said he was committed to the country’s consitition. “I reiterate my commitment to the Constitution, the Rule of Law, and the mandate that millions of citizens expressed freely at the ballot box,” he wrote, according to a translation. “I call on the institutions, the Public Force, the international community, and all Colombians to remain steadfast in defending democracy and constitutional order.” (RELATED: Trump Pulls Up To Turkey For High-Stakes Meeting With NATO Allies)
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The presidential inauguration is set to take place Aug. 7. During the transition, the outgoing administration provides the information necessary to run the government to the incoming administration, according to the AP.
Colombia’s finance minister, Germán Ávila, who also acts as the Petro administration’s transition coordinator, ordered the suspension of the transition process after Espriella’s statement, the AP reported. Ávila took aim at statements from people in Espriella’s transition team in a televised address, saying Petro’s administration has “nothing to hide.”
Espriella focused on crime and the economy during his campaign, promising to reverse the policies of Petro and go after drug cartels and violent gangs. He has a history in Columbia as a lawyer and businessman, Reuters reported. Cepeda’s family were exiled when he was young and lived in the now-defunct communist Czechoslovakia and later Cuba, according to The Bogota Post. He was reportedly a communist in his youth but has shifted toward social policy since.
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