The coup d'état that wasn’t

COLOMBIA - In Brief 10 Oct 2024 by Juan Carlos Echeverry

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On October 8th, 2024, The National Electoral Council (NEC), the body investigating possible financing infringements by the Petro presidential campaign, filed charges against president Petro, the campaign manager Ricardo Roa (current CEO of Ecopetrol), and other members of the campaign staff. That night, the president addressed the nation on public television and accused the NEC of being infiltrated by the same politicians who have governed Colombia for decades, and according to him for violating the Constitution and his presidential status. Then he challenged the five proofs the CNE uses to demonstrate the alleged infringement of legal expense limits by saying that: 1.⁠ ⁠The alleged contributions from the labor unions of Ecopetrol (USO) and public sector teachers (Fecode) were made to the Colombia Humana party, and not to the campaign. [observationally equivalent, from our point of view] 2.⁠ ⁠The alleged payments to electoral witnesses (who supervise the counting of votes at the end of the electoral journeys) do not correspond to campaign expenses. [Well, they were hired before election day] 3.⁠ ⁠All campaign expenses for electoral propaganda were reported in a timely manner and under the respective regulations. 4.⁠ ⁠Flight expenses were not necessarily for flights used by campaign people. [Yeah, right] 5.⁠ ⁠The victory celebration venue used on June 19 was no longer part of the campaign; i.e. after he won there is no longer a campaign going on. [Same as 2.] In sum, Petro claims that the CNE is an instrument of dark forces attempting to overthrow his government. Hence, he wants Colombians to go into “widespread mobilization for the unrestricted defense of democracy. Th...