The outgoing president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, called on the citizenry for a national mobilization on July 20, in opposition to the election of Abelardo de la Espriella as president-elect of Colombia.
Through his social media, Petro hinted between the lines that the election results, in his view, do not represent the true popular will, so that real power lies with “the majority of the people,” and he called for demonstrations in all public squares across the country.
Since the outgoing head of state did not recognize Abelardo de la Espriella’s electoral victory and claimed that this result was linked to “pseudo-aristocrats” and that those who support De la Espriella’s presidency, certified by the Colombian electoral authorities, like “the packs of fascists to beat our relatives and ourselves, like my brother, while they tell the world that we are violent (sic).”
Petro’s comment was contextualized as an attack on the media outlet El Tiempo for reporting that the president-elect’s first council of ministers had taken place. He then proceeded to deny the validity of the designated officials because, according to him, “the council of ministers is only convened by the council of ministers and today, the president of the republic, even if Luis Carlos Sarmiento doesn’t like it, is named Gustavo Petro, the president of the people (sic),” he said.
He also said that claiming that labeling the meeting of officials designated for the incoming government as a “council of ministers” would be, “in other stronger democracies, nothing more than sedition.”
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“They want to live in their world of lies, but where is the real power?“, he questioned.
Then he insisted that opposition sectors seek to install a narrative contrary to his Government, but affirmed that popular support represents the true source of power.
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Despite the electoral results, accredited by Colombian voters, the Colombian electoral institutions, observers, and international missions, Petro—who denounced “electoral fraud” in favor of Abelardo de la Espriella and asserted that, in his view, the president is Iván Cepeda—said that “real power lies with the majority of the people and those majorities are with us.”
There he addressed his supporters. He stated that “when I leave the presidency I will be a free man,” so he wants to invite the “free people without fears and without lies” to come out on July 20 to mobilize.
Gustavo Petro insists on not recognizing Abelardo de la Espriella as president-elect – credit Illustrative image Infobae (Illustrative Image Infobae)
“(…) to shout for the second independence in all the public squares of the country. We are going to dance on July 20th because dancing scares away dark energies. May the sun shine in Colombia and Hope,” he said.
The call is controversial because, in addition to being a patriotic date, July 20, 2026, is the day the new Congress of the Republic will be installed for the 2026-2030 term.
Colombian universities demand respect for the Constitution in the face of challenges to the election result
For their part, the main universities in Colombia requested that political leaders show unrestricted respect for the 1991 Constitution following attempts to disregard the official results of the presidential runoff, won by Abelardo de la Espriella.
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The academic position arose following the accusations by the outgoing president, Gustavo Petro, and his allies, who have cast doubt on the legitimacy of the elections held on June 21, 202This is the letter from the 13 universities that joined the ‘Cuidar la Democracia’ (Protect Democracy) cause, in light of the current political situation – credit provided to Infobae
The Cuidar la Democracia alliance—comprised of thirteen university institutions, including the Universidad de los Andes, the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, and the Universidad del Rosario—published a statement in which it emphasized that the Magna Carta “admits no exceptions, whatever the result may be and whoever may be favored by it.”
The academic bloc warned about the gravity of questioning the electoral process without using the established institutional mechanisms: “Such conduct falls outside the constitutional and legal framework, and is of the utmost gravity, as it undermines the basic democratic agreements that enable the peaceful alternation of power,” they noted.
