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Colombia’s left-wing president, Gustavo Petro, has been accused of electoral fraud after preliminary results of the presidential election showed the candidate narrowly losing.
In a series of posts on the social media site X on Monday, Petro said the opposition bought votes and that Israel and the United States interfered to help right-wing opposition Abelardo de la Espriella win.
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Petro has refused to recognize the results and has asked the courts to investigate.
The president, who was barred by law from running for a second term, was Colombia’s first left-wing president, putting him at odds with the US.
His administration is praised for reforms that boosted public spending, raised the minimum wage and redistributed land to poor families. Peter also cut ties with Israel over Israel’s deadly war in Gaza and distanced himself from the administration of US President Donald Trump.
However, critics said his refusal to accept the results of the election could lead to political conflict – and even violence. Here’s what we know:
What are the results of the elections?
The first round of the presidential election was held on May 31. None of the two leaders – Abelardo de la Espriella of the right-wing Defenders of the Homeland movement and Senator Ivan Cepeda of the Historic Pact decision – obtained at least 50 percent of the vote, which led to the dismissal on Sunday.
De la Espriella narrowly won with 49.66 percent to Cepeda’s 48.7 percent, according to preliminary results released Monday by the National Registry, which oversees the vote.
The difference is less than 1 percent of the vote and is one of the closest elections in Colombia.
Trump-backed de la Espriella, 47, will take office on August 7. The judge is a multi-millionaire who has advocated tougher defense and anti-leftist policies. They are also US citizens.
De la Espriella’s victory is part of a recent trend in Latin American countries electing far-right leaders who are pro-Trump. Argentina’s Javier Milei, Honduras’ Nasry “Tito” Asfura, El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele and Costa Rica’s Laura Fernandez Delgado all have close ties to the Trump administration.
Why does Peter say hypocrisy?
Petro went to X to denounce a series of what he said was voter fraud that was carried out with the help of Israel and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Petro said there is evidence of changes to Form E-14, the official said, handwritten forms that are written by poll workers at each polling station.
This form is a record of the number of votes and is intended to prevent fraud in elections. It is filled out by hand, and digital scans are also uploaded to the National Registry portal for public reading. If found to be in error, the parties may request a re-reading.
Petro said that foreign actors accessed the National Registry website and re-entered voter information on some E-14 models.
“Today we have evidence of changes in the IP addresses of several servers of the national registry,” he wrote.
“This means that the program was tampered with and some wrote information about polling stations and polling stations. The only organization in the world that can do this is the state of Israel,” Petro added without providing evidence that Israel was involved.
Petro said his party had asked for a “technical review” of the voting software before the elections and asked the authorities to take digital copies of all documents published digitally so that they are not altered. He said the requests were ignored.
The outgoing president has shared videos of what he says are “preparatory” E-14 forms. He added that the manipulation was done “from the offices of the Bautista brothers”.
Who are the Bautista brothers?
Peter was referring to Thomas Greg & Sons, a well-known business printing and security printing company that handles decision making projects in Colombia. Until recently, it also printed Colombian passports.
It is run by brothers Fernando and Camilo Bautista Palacio. The two were convicted of bank fraud in the US in the 1980s.
Thomas Greg & Sons, founded by his father, Gregorio, has contracted with the National Registry for more than a decade to manage the election process, the early vote count and the vote count program.
Petro in April accused the Bautista brothers of negotiating with de la Espriella that would help them become a right-wing president in return for passport printing contracts.
At the time, de la Espriella denied the allegations, and his lawyers threatened Peter with a lawsuit.
What do the authorities say?
Attorney General Gregorio Eljach has denied the allegations and told reporters that “there is no evidence of fraud” with more than 99 percent of the votes counted.
De la Espriella, meanwhile, did not directly respond to Peter.
Is de la Espriella affiliated with Israel?
Yes, de la Espriella has always supported Israel and campaigned among Colombian Jews, promising Israel that his government would “defend the values of Judaism and Christianity”.
He has promised to reverse Petro’s 2024 decision to cut ties with Israel and has promised to move the Colombian embassy to Jerusalem.
Netanyahu praised de la Espriella on Monday, saying: “I look forward to working with you to strengthen the relationship between Israel and Colombia.”
What has the US done?
In his posts, Petro also criticized Trump for meddling in the election by publicly endorsing a candidate and influencing voters.
Trump endorsed de la Espriella on his Truth Social platform a few weeks before his inauguration.
Trump and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio also thanked de la Espriella for his early victory, and Trump took credit for the win.
“He was in 10th place. I endorsed him, and he won the election. He called me last night and thanked me for the endorsement,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Monday.
Rubio wrote on X: “The Trump administration looks forward to working with the incoming administration to advance regional security cooperation, end illegal immigration to the United States, and strengthen our economic relationship.”
Petro has asked Mr. Trump to report fraud in the election.
“I invite President Donald Trump to speak,” Petro wrote, adding that the US president is responsible for “supporting the candidate and not the rights of the Colombian people”.
What is the US-Colombia relationship?
Although the two countries have trade relations, diplomatic relations are often strained due to drug-trafficking laws and relations with Israel, among other issues.
But relations fell apart under the administrations of Trump and Peter.
Petro in January last year refused to allow US-deported planes to land in his country and said on X that the US “cannot treat Colombian migrants as terrorists”.
In October, the United States indicted Petro, his family and government officials on unproven drug-trafficking charges.
In January of this year, the US military seized Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro from his home in Caracas after the Trump administration accused him of “narcoterrorism”.
