Lawyer Files Complaint Against Colombian President Gustavo Petro for Alleged Violation of Electoral Spending Limits

The lawyer José Manuel Abuchaibe Escolar filed a complaint against the president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, so that he be investigated and punished for alleged violation of the ceilings or spending limits in the electoral campaign for the Presidency, and thus restore confidence in the constitutional and legal legal norms.

When exposing the facts, the Guajiro jurist says that “we will observe an unlawful act of the one denounced here, an intention to harm the institutions, as well as their functional regime, and to offend the credibility and good name of the presidential figure.”
He maintained that it is up to the Commission on Accusations or, failing that, to the Plenary of the House of Representatives, to determine if, in the specific case, evidently the President of the Republic could have engaged in irregular actions and if this entails any violation. to the constitutional and legal order.
It indicates that “in the lines that follow we will explain why, in the specific case of President Gustavo Petro, these facts constitute a violation of the Constitution, and therefore must be investigated and severely punished in harmony with our current constitutional framework.”
It points out that the establishment of spending limits for electoral campaigns covers the presidential election. In other words, Petro is not exempt from complying with the constitutional norm (Article 109).
In accordance with the law, those responsible for all effects are President Gustavo Petro, Vice President Francia Márquez and the campaign manager, Ricardo Roa. The regulations establish that, if violations of the electoral law are proven, the president and vice president could be removed from their posts.
“At this point, we will see if Congress strengthens our democracy by investigating and sanctioning President Petro for exceeding spending limits in his presidential campaign. If they do not do so, many will be able to aspire in the future without spending limits and hoping in the end for a simple fine as an administrative sanction from the National Electoral Council”, says lawyer José Manuel Abuchaibe.
He points out that “it is a notorious and public fact that the National Electoral Council found serious irregularities in the accounts of the campaign that led the current president to the Presidency.”
He explains that behind the findings is an audit that, by law, the CNE does to the accounts of all the candidates.
In the case of Petro, a group of accountants from the Colombian firm Nexia Montes & Asociados scrutinized their accounts and found, among other alleged irregularities, that they had modified an invoice to avoid blowing the funding limits.
Added to these irregularities are payments to companies for more than $450 million that – the audit revealed – were registered in the Chamber of Commerce of Bucaramanga and Piedecuesta (Santander) only after the business was done. That is, at the time of making the payments they did not formally exist.
In the midst of the transactions, it was also evidenced that some of the invoices issued were not electronic (despite being their obligation) or that VAT was not discriminated.
In terms of advertising, against which Petro spent more than $19.5 billion in the first round alone, the report indicated that there is uncertainty about a contract and the sites where billboards were installed for which more than $178 million were paid.
In addition, that the contractor José Orlando Riveros, who provided advertising for Petro for $1,446 million – and who had had contracts in his Mayor’s Office – did not present financial information for 2020, 2021 and 2022.
“Just thinking about the reversal of an invoice from a security company that tried to save today’s president’s campaign from blowing up the funding caps, it is clear to us that there are obvious criminal offenses such as document falsification and procedural fraud,” he concludes. the lawyer Abuchaibe.