Outgoing Colombian President Claims Israel Interfered in Election

Outgoing Colombian President Gustavo Petro reacted on Monday to the presidential election results after right-wing candidate Abelardo de la Espriella defeated Ivan Cepeda in the decisive runoff. Petro did not accept the outcome, saying there was still no clear winner and alleging foreign interference on behalf of the pro-Israel candidate.

"The count results show about 49% for each of the contenders, and a winner still cannot be declared," Petro said. He added, however, that "I will obey the judges." Petro also claimed, "We have evidence of election violations and a change of IP addresses for some servers of the National Civil Registry. That means the software was breached, and others wrote voting data. The only country in the world that has the capability to do this is the State of Israel."

With more than 99% of the vote counted in the second round, de la Espriella had 49.65% to Cepeda’s 48.7%, a margin of about 245,000 votes. The result was seen as a win for Israel as well, because de la Espriella is strongly pro-Israel and promised during the campaign to restore ties between Jerusalem and Bogota, which worsened under Petro.

US President Donald Trump congratulated the winner while votes were still being counted, posting on Truth Social, "He won, big!" US Secretary of State Marco Rubio also spoke with de la Espriella and congratulated him. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar likewise praised the victory before final results were announced, writing, "The tiger won, Colombia won!" and said he hoped to work with the president-elect to revive relations between Israel and Colombia and to host him in Jerusalem soon.