Colombia's outgoing president alleges fraud warns of unrest

Colombia's outgoing President Gustavo Petro has intensified his claims of massive electoral fraud and warned that the impending inauguration of President-elect Abelardo de la Espriella could trigger civil unrest, days before the conservative leader is set to take office. The accusations have plunged the nation's political transition into a state of high tension.

At a presentation on Monday, Petro alleged that the June 21 presidential runoff, which Espriella won by approximately 250,000 votes, was manipulated through systematic fraud. He claimed that official tally sheets lacked cryptographic security locks, suggesting they could have been altered after scanning. Data analysts working with Petro presented findings they said indicated irregularities, including municipalities with more registered voters than inhabitants and statistically improbable voting patterns at certain polling centers. Petro asserted that foreign money and private intelligence firms, which he linked to Israel and the United States, orchestrated an algorithmic manipulation of the results.

The outgoing president declared his political ally, leftist Senator Iván Cepeda, the true winner of the election. "We are...