Wednesday, October 9, 2024, 17:06
“The coup d’état has begun,” Gustavo Petro warned in his first reaction to the investigation opened against him by the National Electoral Council (CNE) for an alleged violation of the spending limit allowed for the 2022 elections. The president of Colombia considers the organization clearly violates the Constitution and the jurisdiction of the head of state and “endangers the institutionality” that it represents.
In response, Petro once again called for “generalized mobilization” and asked all popular organizations to meet in a permanent assembly. «It is the time of the people. “As constitutionally elected president of the republic, I order the public forces not to raise a single weapon against the people.”
The Plenary Chamber of the National Electoral Council decided last Wednesday by majority to file charges for the presidential campaigns of the Historical Pact coalition, led by the current president, the Colombia Humana political movement and the Patriotic Union party (UP).
The CNE accuses Petro, the manager, the treasurer and the auditors of his formation of exceeding the permitted limit by more than 5,355 million Colombian pesos (1.16 million euros). This decision could end in sanctions and lead to the Commission of Accusations of the Chamber and the Prosecutor’s Office.
Judges Fabiola Vázquez Márquez and Alba Lucía Velázquez distanced themselves from the resolution adopted by the other seven members of the CNE. In his opinion, the body is not competent to investigate the President of the Republic.
Defense of democracy
Petro has fifteen days to exercise his right to defense. Surely his lawyers will insist that only the House Impeachment Commission is empowered to investigate, accuse and even remove a head of state from office via impeachment.
Once the Council’s decision was known, Petro addressed the country with a speech in which he once again called for a generalized mobilization of the Colombian people for the strict defense of democracy. “I ask the world to pay attention to Colombia and help us defend our democracy,” said the first left-wing Colombian president, voted two years ago by more than eleven million citizens.
Some legislative sources considered this process as a violation of the Constitution and the guarantees of the president in office, and assured that the IACHR (Inter-American Court of Human Rights) will probably intervene in favor of the president. In his speech, Petro denied all the alleged accusations on which the CNE has based itself to open an investigation that he considers “outside the law.”
Some media in the Latin American country recalled that something similar had already happened in the so-called “8,000 process” against the then president Ernesto Samper (1994 and 1998), who was accused by the prosecutor of receiving money from drug trafficking for his presidential campaign. However, the House Impeachment Commission ordered the case to be acquitted and archived.
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