So expressed President Gustavo Petro, who, on his social media account, strongly rejected the electoral body’s decision, which cited alleged violations of campaign spending limits and the receipt of funds from unauthorized sources.

The Council fined Petro’s former campaign manager, Ricardo Roa, treasurer Lucy Mogollon, and auditor Maria Soto, as well as Patriotic Union (UP) and Colombia Humana parties (the president’s own political party).

In response, the president warned that “the offensive by the traditional political class within the National Electoral Council (CNE) against my 2022 campaign, with the fabricated campaign spending limits—because they never existed—is an attempt to prevent the largest political movement in Colombia from obtaining legal status and becoming a political party: the Historical Pact.”

He described the move as a violent attack against the Colombian Constitution and the American Convention on Human Rights, asserting that the electoral body is preventing the president from fulfilling his obligation to guarantee free elections. “They were talking about a coup d’etat on my part, but it is corruption that is carrying it out. They want a dictatorship of corruption, and it is the citizens who must answer for this,” he stated.

The previous day, in a nationally televised address, Petro questioned the fact that one of the judges assisting in determining the imposition of the sanctions is also the lawyer for former presidential candidate and current mayor of Medellin, Federico Gutierrez, an outspoken opponent of the government.

The president asserted that this situation compromises the principle of an impartial arbiter.

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