Turmoil in Colombia

[Rizotto]

https://www.rt.com/news/641963-petro...election-hack/

Colombia’s Petro accuses Israel of hacking election
The outgoing president has suggested that election software was compromised and called for a full recount

June 22, 2026

Outgoing Colombian President Gustavo Petro has accused Israel of hacking the presidential election, claiming that changes to election servers allowed outsiders to manipulate voting data.

He made the remarks after right-wing candidate Abelardo De La Espriella won the presidential election on Sunday by a narrow margin, preliminary results show, defeating leftist Senator Ivan Cepeda and signaling a shift away from Petro’s progressive policies.

With nearly all ballots counted, De La Espriella secured 49.66% of the vote against 48.70% for Cepeda, according to the National Registry. The 47-year-old lawyer and businessman, who was endorsed by US President Donald Trump, campaigned on promises to crack down on crime, end peace talks with armed groups, and restore ties with Israel after Petro severed diplomatic relations.

Petro, a longtime critic of Western powers, has accused the US of perpetuating global inequality and described Israel’s military campaign in Gaza as “genocide.”

In a post on Sunday on X, Petro said he had warned that election software developed by the Bautista brothers was vulnerable, citing a 2018 ruling by Colombia’s Council of State, and had called for it to be replaced with publicly owned software and subjected to an independent audit.

Petro said there was evidence that the IP addresses of several servers belonging to Colombia’s National Registry were changed, which he claimed indicates that the software was breached and “others entered data for polling stations and voting centers.”

“The only entity in the world with the capacity to do that is the state of Israel,” he added.

He said he would provide judges with details of the allegedly altered servers and called for a full recount and an investigation into vulnerabilities in the election software.

De La Espriella, who pushed for closer ties with Washington, has already received congratulations from Trump and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio. He pledged to restore diplomatic relations with Israel and open a Colombian Embassy in Jerusalem, reversing Petro’s severing of ties.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar congratulated De La Espriella on his “impressive victory” and said Israel looks forward to strengthening bilateral ties.

The close ties between De La Espriella and Israel were on display throughout his campaign. During a meeting with Sa’ar in November, De La Espriella said that “a strategic alliance with the State of Israel and the US government will not only make us stronger, but will place us on the right side of history.”

[Ravenlocke]

Argentina Noticias

Translated from Spanish
🚨 COLOMBIA RISES AGAINST THE FAR RIGHT: THOUSANDS TAKE TO THE STREETS AND THE WAVE OF PROTESTS GROWS IN LATIN AMERICA

The far right faces growing popular resistance! Thousands of Colombians took to the streets of Bogotá, Medellín, Cali, and other cities in a massive day of protest against the government of Abelardo de la Espriella.

Unions, students, teachers, and social organizations led mobilizations in more than ten cities to reject the policies of the leader and defend labor rights, public education, and social gains. Colombia becomes a new stage for resistance against the Latin American far right. The streets begin to speak, and the discontent makes itself felt!

https://x.com/argennoti/status/2110507920731340954

La Jornada

Translated from Spanish
With a massive mobilization against Abelardo de la Espriella, the Colombian left won the first round against the so-called “Patria Milagro” that the far-right figure is pushing against the social reforms and workers' gains achieved with Petro.

Sixty-seven days after his inauguration as president and without yet making any substantive decisions, the streets of the country's main cities were filled with unionists, students, social and political opposition leaders with a single slogan: “Abelardo de la Espriella, the fascist, doesn't have it easy.”

Read the note:


https://x.com/lajornadaonline/status...48769485791602