Senator Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) publicly criticized an alleged attempt by Colombian President Gustavo Petro to rig the country's presidential elections in a social media post, writing, "The United States stands firmly with the people of Colombia in demanding free and fair elections."
Context
As Reuters describes, the Trump-backed right-wing candidate, Abelardo De La Espriella, has narrowly clinched victory with 49.66% of the vote, while his opponent, the leftist Ivan Cepeda, trails with just 48.70%.
But Petro is singing a different tune on social media, claiming neither can rightfully call themselves the winner yet.
In a post to X, translated from Spanish, Petro wrote, "With the same data from the registry office, the pre-count result at this moment is 49.3 for Abelardo and 49 for Cepeda. Neither can be proclaimed president."
"It is the scrutiny that determines who is the president [sic]," Petro continued, adding, "I obey the judges. Calm among the citizenry, please. Reality gives us a country split down the middle, and foreign interference taking away our freedom. A National Agreement is imposed if we want to maintain the Homeland and peace in the years to come."
In a follow-up post, the Colombian President alleged that Israel managed to manipulate the software used to tabulate votes.
Gallego's Response
As a result of the controversy, Sen. Gallego responded to Petro's post, writing, "The United States stands firmly with the people of Colombia in demanding free and fair elections. Legitimate threats must be addressed, but if President Petro is weaponizing conspiracy theories to maintain power, he risks deeply damaging Colombian democracy and our historic partnership."
Meanwhile, in the United States...
In April, Sen. Gallego teamed up Senator Mark Kelly (D-AZ) to demand the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) end its probe into the 2020 Election in Arizona, claiming the election was secure and that there was no evidence of voter fraud.
"The election was the subject of multiple failed lawsuits and investigations and audits that revealed no evidence of fraud. Deploying agents who should be focused on targeting criminals to investigate debunked claims of election fraud makes Americans less safe and raises serious questions about the legitimacy of the investigation," the Senators wrote.
