Colombian President Gustavo Petro has accused former head of state Alvaro Uribe, Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa and far-right forces in the United States and Ecuador of trying to influence the election results in the country.
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“Noboa … accepts the opposition led by Uribe, with whom he conspires to interfere in the elections,” Petro wrote on his blog on Twitter.
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According to him, representatives of the Colombian far-right forces associated with the murders and drug trafficking “fill their heads with lies” to the presidents of the United States and Colombia and coordinate actions with foreign partners.
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“That is why the Attorney General (of Colombia in 2020-2024, Francisco Barbosa) went to Quito to declare that the progressive candidate who was on the verge of victory, Andres Araus, was allegedly funded by the (Colombian rebel Army of National Liberation) ELN a week before the election. It was a lie, but it cost him victory, and no one was held accountable for it,” the Colombian leader added.
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Petro also stated that the Ecuadorian authorities had received instructions from the US State Department to look for individuals willing to bring charges against him in order to justify his presence on the OFAC Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctions list.
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The president added that he had asked the head of the White House, Donald Trump, to mediate with Noboa, but the matter was referred to the head of the State Department, Marco Rubio.
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The first round of the Colombian presidential election is scheduled for May 31. If no candidate gets more than 50% of the votes, the second round will be held on June 21.
