In a speech, the President Gustavo Petro harshly criticized the decision of the National Electoral Council (CNE) of charging him and the rest of those responsible for his presidential campaign on behalf of the alleged exceeding of the limits set for 2022.
In an eight-minute speech, the head of state expressed the reasons why does not share the accusation of charges and reiterated the thesis that a “coup d’état” against him.
“Today the comprehensive jurisdiction of the President of the Republic of Colombia has been broken. Today the first step of a coup d’état was taken against me as constitutional president, democratically elected by popular vote by more than 11 million citizens.“This is how the president began his speech, who went so far as to say that if the case were successful, the crime would be committed.”greatest affront to our democracy in the history of the country“.
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Gustavo Petro
Later, the first president criticized the political origin of the CNE and reiterated that, supposedly, this instance does not have the powers to carry out the investigations against him, this because the Constitution establishes that its jurisdiction is comprehensive and that the proper instance is the Impeachment Committee of the House of Representatives: “What happened endangers the institutionality that I represent today“.
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Then, Petro summarized the case in five points and expressed the reasons why he considers his accusation to be erroneous. In the first section, he insisted that there were never donations from Fecode and the USO to his campaign, but rather they went to the party Human Colombia. Even, He compared this aspect with the donations they made to the Democratic Center in 2018, when Iván Duque was a presidential candidate..
In addition, He pointed out that the payment of electoral witnesses was not part of the campaign, since it was done just on election day.when supposedly the temporality of political proselytism was no longer in place. Thirdly, he urged that all electoral propaganda expenses were reported in a timely manner. “This was certified by the external audit hired by the CNE itself, which certified the veracity of all accounts 30 days after the campaign.“he added at this point.
CNE
Petro also stated that The authors of the report with which the charges were brought against him misinterpreted the item of flight permits requested with journeys made.. “They were not necessarily used by the campaign“, he insisted. To this he added: “All the invoices delivered by the campaign to the Dian correspond to the services provided by the air transport company SADI, but they were unknown“.
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Already in the fifth point, the President recognized that Yes, there was a payment for the Movistar Arena for the June 19 celebration. However, as in the witnesses section, he justified this expense by noting that it was a campaign expense, since it had already ended and they were celebrating the results of the polls.
“The charges made by the National Electoral Council are unfounded, and if my guarantees had been respected, the citizens would know that my actions were not only totally honest, but that I am facing an administrative authority captured by the opposition, which seeks at all costs to put in doubt my integrity“Petro said.
Gustavo Petro
Towards the end of the speech, and as a defense mechanism, the President asked the Commission of Accusations, which is handling a case for the same facts, to make the dossier public, “so that citizens know the more than 25 testimonial evidence, 34 documentaries and three judicial inspections that have been carried out. It is through evidence that I claim my innocence and censure the actions of the National Electoral Council.“. Nevertheless, The president did not mention that these investigations are being carried out by a triumvirate whose majority is made up of members of the Historical Pact: representatives Alirio Uribe and Gloria Arizabaleta.
Finally, Petro made a new call for popular mobilization, a call that he made hours before through his social networks. “I call for the widespread mobilization of the Colombian people for the unrestricted defense of democracy“said the national leader, who again spoke of a call for the Public Force not to attack the civilian population, without explaining the reasons for that order.
PORTFOLIO
*With information from EL TIEMPO – POLITICS
