Left-wing candidate Iván Cepeda delivering his speech on Colombia's recent elections. Photo: EFE.
Candidate Iván Cepeda, in his speech after announcing the results of the first round, said that “we obtained 10 million votes miscounted in Colombia.”
Colombian presidential candidate Iván Cepeda of the left-wing Pacto Histórico party called on supporters not to resort to violence against those who hold different political ideas, recalling the deep wounds inflicted on the social fabric by those who sow hatred, fear, and the desire to destroy other national projects. His remarks came after a billboard appeared in which right-wing candidate Abelardo de la Espriella savagely attacked the progressive politician.
Cepeda stated that “in a democracy, we can have intense differences with our opponents,” and “we can debate firmly, confront ideas and defend our positions with conviction”—but must never resort to violence.
“We must never appeal to violence,” he confirmed. “Neither the symbolic violence that sows fear and resentment nor the physical violence that seeks to destroy others.”
In a sincere appeal to those who support his project of change for the benefit of the excluded masses, Cepeda urged supporters not to be dragged down by hatred or provocation.
“Let us respond to aggression with arguments, to lies with truth, and to violence with calm. That is the strength of democracy,” reflected the left-wing candidate in a message in which he shared a disturbing image: the oligarchy’s candidate, smiling, pressing his knee into Cepeda’s back—evoking techniques used by repressive forces to suffocate and subdue protesters, such as that used by US police officer Derek Chauvin to kill the African-American George Floyd.
Following the May 31 elections, Cepeda—who obtained 9,688,361 votes, or 40.9% of valid votes cast—criticized the political stance of his rival De la Espriella, who obtained 43.74% of votes, a total of 10,361,499.
De la Espriella, Cepeda specified, is “a lawyer for paramilitary leaders at San José de Ralito; his father was a notary who legalized assets belonging to paramilitary leader Salvatore Mancuso; a lawyer for drug traffickers, and a swindler of swindlers, a swindler of drug traffickers.”
“He represents mafia fascism—the project expressed by the fascist far right in Colombia and the world. The scope, advances, and achievements in social matters of our government under the Pacto Histórico would be pulverized under an eventual De la Espriella administration: no living wage, no support for public education and zero tuition fees, no agrarian reform, no support for youth—support instead for the most corrupt and powerful circles of Colombian society. Plutocracy and corruption.”
He added: “We should expect no measures favorable to the environment, the protection of water, and the preservation of our country’s natural wealth and ecological sanctuaries. Total destruction of nature and life in Colombia.”
“Mr. De la Espriella is a homophobe and a misogynist” and represents, he added, “the return to the para-political, drug-trafficking, mafia, plutocratic, and corrupt past that the country experienced under Álvaro Uribe’s two terms, reinforced by the international far right.”
Petro’s statements on De la Espriella
Similarly, after being insulted by De la Espriella, President Gustavo Petro stated that “I am promised prison simply for my progressive political position in favor of the people. This happens because the project behind Abelardo is the same one that was behind Uribe, who already supports him: the mafia fascism that has already governed Colombia.”
“Every people has a moral obligation before humanity to defeat fascism. What fascism left behind wherever it has governed is a holocaust. Holocaust in Europe, holocaust in China, holocaust in Chile, Uruguay and Argentina,” he said.
President Petro added that there was “a holocaust in Colombia because it was fascism that governed Colombia in the era of Laureano Gómez and Mariano Ospina and, later, through paramilitary governance that left 200,000 dead.”
He also stated that “I rose up with my public words against them and defeated them without a weapon, and that is why I am president. And now they speak of revenge when they think they can return to power—to gut progressivism and imprison, which in reality means to assassinate its leader.”
“I know about the votes they bought by the fistful—150,000 and 200,000 pesos a vote. I know they are seeking to scatter us and are sharpening their knives and fangs. I know the weaknesses of the progressive campaign,” he added.
President Petro stated that “we are going to win and defeat fascism,” while pointing out that De la Espriella was born in Córdoba, just as he was—though the difference is that the candidate comes from a landowning family and is a defender of paramilitarism.
Petro highlighted that De la Espriella was resoundingly defeated in the town where he was born—Sahagún—and across the entire department of Córdoba.
“He was defeated throughout the Colombian Caribbean,” he noted. “Why? Because in his hometown, they know him and know what would happen if a fascist defender of paramilitarism comes to power,” added Petro, who has also alleged in recent hours that electoral fraud was committed.
(Telesur)
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/CB/SL
Cameron Baillie is an award-winning journalist, editor, and researcher. He won and was shortlisted for awards across Britain and Ireland. He is Editor-in-Chief of New Sociological Perspectives graduate journal and Commissioning Editor at The Student Intifada newsletter. He spent the first half of 2025 living, working, and writing in Ecuador. He does news translation and proofreading work with The Orinoco Tribune.
