The president of Colombia asked security forces “not to raise a single weapon against the people”
by El Reportero news services
The president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, called on Tuesday for citizens to mobilize against the decision of the National Electoral Council (CNE) to press charges against him for alleged irregularities in the financing of his electoral campaign.
After claiming that the investigation marks the beginning of an attempt at a “coup d’état,” the president asserted that “the people” would take to the streets in his favor.
“All popular organizations in the country must enter into a permanent assembly. The time for the generalized mobilization of the Colombian people has come,” Petro stated on his X social media account.
He added, “The constitutional president of Colombia, elected by popular vote, orders the public forces not to raise a single weapon against the people.”
“A time for decisions”
This Tuesday, during a speech from Carmen de Viboral, in the Antioquia department, Petro said that the CNE has placed the government of Colombia “in a difficult, grave moment.”
“We are not fools. What they are after is a coup d’état, not like those of the past, with soldiers, cannons, and tanks,” he said, adding that he had ordered the Army and public forces not to react against the population.
“Their enemies are the criminals, not the people. And there will be mobilization of the people, of course, large and immense, because this people is tired of indignity and injustice. It is a time for decisions,” the president declared.
“The president’s immunity has been broken”
“Today, the comprehensive immunity of the president of the Republic of Colombia, who defends the Constitution, has been broken. Today, the first step of a coup d’état against me, as the constitutional president, has been taken,” Petro stated in another address, affirming that, if this act materializes, it would be the “greatest affront” to democracy in the country’s history.
In this regard, he indicated that the National Electoral Council has filed charges against him, which “clearly violates” the Constitution and his immunity, while also “endangering the institutional framework” that he represents.
“The charges brought by the National Electoral Council are unfounded, and if my rights had been respected, the public would know that my actions were not only entirely honorable, but that I am facing an administrative authority captured by the opposition, which seeks at all costs to cast doubt on my integrity,” he continued.
Additionally, he once again called for a generalized mobilization of the Colombian people for the “unrestricted defense” of democracy and urged the world to pay attention to Colombia.
“I order all public forces not to raise a single weapon against the people. The times of inequality and violence must come to an end in Colombia. Today’s decision marks the beginning of an attack on the president’s comprehensive immunity and on the eleven million people who voted for this progressive project. This is a crude and undeniable fracture of the Constitution itself,” he concluded.
– On the morning of that same Tuesday, the Colombian National Electoral Council voted in favor of launching an investigation and opening charges against the president, which extends to three members of his campaign, due to their apparent responsibility in violating the spending limits established for the 2022 election.
