Petro’s position is not at risk nor will there be a ‘coup d’état’, according to experts

The charge of President Gustavo Petro is not at risk due to the investigation and formulation of charges by the National Electoral Council (CNE) against his 2022 campaign for the alleged violation of spending limits, according to experts on constitutional issues.

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The CNE considers that Petro, as a candidate; his campaign manager, Ricardo Roa, and other members of his team must respond “for the alleged violation of the financing regime for electoral campaigns”since it is suspected that they exceeded the established spending limits and resorted to prohibited sources that they did not declare.

The president is convinced that the CNE’s actions are a “coup d’état” and even took the case before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IDC) because it considers that this body has exceeded its functions and has not respected its presidential jurisdiction.

In this regard, constitutionalist Juan Manuel Charry told EFE that the CNE can investigate and file charges against those responsible for Petro’s presidential campaign, which includes the current head of state.

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“The CNE can investigate the president,” Charry points out bluntly, who clarifies that what that organization cannot do is “impeach the president”because if he finds any responsibility on his part, the one who must take care of the case is Congress, his natural judge.

Investigate but do not judge

Charry explains that Law 996 of 2005 authorizes the CNE to do “reviews and audits, at any time, of campaign income and expenses, and in case of violation, sanctions will be imposed, ranging from fines, freezing of transfers, return of resources and, in the case of the winner of the presidential elections, Congress may decree the loss of office, according to the impeachment procedure for indignity”.

According to the CNE, Petro’s campaign violated spending limits by 5,355 million pesos (about 1.2 million dollars today).

For Charry it is clear that the CNE can investigate and file charges against the Petro campaign, but he emphasizes that if there are sanctions, even if they are administrative, They could only fall on the campaign and not the president.

“The CNE’s function is to prove whether or not there were violations during the campaign and, if so, send the evidence to the House of Representatives, specifically to the Commission of Accusations,” explains Charry, who highlights that this body is the only one that can accuse the head of state.

(Follow here: What is the CNE and why does it work in Colombia?)

If the CNE proves that there were irregularities and sends the file to the Accusations Commission, it can propose to the plenary session of the House of Representatives an accusation against Petro which, if accepted, is transferred to the Senate. where it will be studied by an equivalent commission that, in turn, takes it to a plenary session.

“If the plenary accepts the accusation to advance the trial, the president is suspended from office, the sanction is applied and he loses office as a consequence of the infraction,” Charry explained.

That possibility is quite remote since Congress has never removed a Colombian president and the process that has gone furthest was the impeachment of Ernesto Samper (1994-1998), acquitted by the House of Representatives of the accusation of entering money. of drug trafficking in his electoral campaign.
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Former vice president and former chief peace negotiator Humberto de la Calle, also a constitutional expert, considers “that the CNE cannot overthrow the president” because although that organ “is enabled to investigate all campaigns”, Investigating Petro’s campaign in 2022 is not investigating the president.

“Petro will end his term (on August 7, 2026). His allegation of the coup, in addition to being exaggerated, hurts Colombia,” De la Calle said in his X account.

What’s next

Meeting all the deadlines of the process takes time and for the CNE to determine if “whether there was illegality or not” in the financing of Petro’s campaign can be extended until June 2025.

“The CNE can sanction the manager and others with fines and administrative sanctions, loss of legal status for political parties”Charry breaks down.

For the constitutionalist, what President Petro is doing by criticizing the CNE and saying that there is a “coup d’état” It is wrong.

“I see it badly because it seems to me that it falls into a mistake that presidents usually make and that is that they believe that the way to address legal controls is with political responses”he concludes.

EFE