President Petro called on the People to mobilize after denouncing the beginning of a coup d'etat

Published at: 08/10/2024 11:41 PM

The president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, called on citizens this Tuesday, October 08, to mobilize against the decision of the National Electoral Council (CNE) to file charges against them, for alleged irregularities in the financing of their electoral campaign.

After stating that the investigation is the beginning of an attempted “coup d'etat”, the president assured that the people will speak out in his favor, giving a speech from Carmen de Viboral, in the department of Antioquia.

“All popular organizations in the country must enter into a permanent assembly. The time for the generalized mobilization of the Colombian people has come,” Petro said on his account on the social network X.

Petro said that the CNE has put the Government of Colombia “in a difficult, serious moment.”

“We are not fools. What they are going for is a coup d'etat, not like those of yesteryear, with soldiers and guns and tanks,” he said, adding that he has ordered the Army and the public forces not to react against the population.

“Their enemies are the bandits, not the People and there will be a mobilization of the People, of course, and great and immense, because this People grew tired of ignominy and injustice. It's time for definitions,” he said.

He stated that “today the full jurisdiction of the President of the Republic of Colombia, who defends the Constitution, has been broken. Today, the first step of a coup d'etat was taken against me, as Constitutional President.”

He assured that if this act were to take place, it would represent the greatest affront to democracy in the country's history.

In this regard, he indicated that the National Electoral Council has brought charges against him, which clearly violates the Constitution and his jurisdiction, while at the same time “endangering the institutionality” he represents.

“The charges made by the National Electoral Council are unfounded and if my guarantees had been respected, citizens would know that my actions were not only totally honest, but that I am facing an administrative authority captured by the opposition that seeks at all costs to question my integrity,” he stressed.

Mazo News Team