Colombia’s Petro Accuses Israel and US of Election Meddling as Results Stand

Colombian outgoing President Gustavo Petro has formally rejected the preliminary results of the presidential run-off, accusing Israel and the United States of interfering to secure victory for far-right candidate Abelardo de la Espriella. Petro alleges that digital manipulation of official tally sheets, known as Form E-14, compromised the integrity of the vote, attributing the technical breach directly to the Israeli state. The Attorney General has dismissed these allegations, stating there is no evidence of irregularities with more than 99 percent of votes counted.

De la Espriella narrowly defeated Petro’s handpicked candidate, Senator Ivan Cepeda, with 49.66 percent of the vote compared to Cepeda’s 48.7 percent. The razor-thin margin represents one of Colombia’s closest elections. Petro has refused to recognise the outcome and has called for a judicial investigation, while de la Espriella, who has strong ties to the Trump administration and has promised to restore diplomatic relations with Israel, has not directly responded to the accusations.

In a series of posts on X, Petro claimed that foreign actors accessed the National Registry’s website to rewrite voting data on digital scans of the physical tally sheets. He asserted that evidence of IP address changes on the registry’s servers indicated that the software was compromised. Petro stated that only the state of Israel possessed the capability to execute such a breach, although he provided no concrete evidence to substantiate the claim.

Petro further alleged that the manipulation was executed from the offices of Thomas Greg & Sons, a private logistics firm managed by the Bautista brothers that handles Colombia’s electoral infrastructure. He claimed the firm negotiated a deal to secure passport printing contracts in exchange for electoral support. The Attorney General, Gregorio Eljach, dismissed these fraud allegations, noting that the technical audit requests made by Petro’s party were ignored prior to the election but that the final count showed no signs of tampering.

The election results mark a significant shift in regional politics, with de la Espriella’s victory aligning with a trend of far-right leaders in Latin America who maintain close ties to the Trump administration. US President Donald Trump publicly endorsed de la Espriella weeks before the run-off and claimed credit for the win, while US Secretary of State Marco Rubio congratulated the incoming president on securing cooperation on regional security and immigration. Relations between Petro’s administration and the US have been severely strained, including US sanctions imposed on Petro and his family in October 2024.