President Gustavo Petro on Tuesday denounced a potential electoral fraud scheme involving right-wing candidate Abelardo de la Espriella and Thomas Greg & Sons, a private company long responsible for passport issuance, electoral logistics, and preliminary vote counting in Colombia.

Speaking from the capital, Petro claimed that intelligence reports suggest the Bautista brothers – whose company was previously sanctioned by U.S. courts – and de la Espriella discussed returning the lucrative passport contract to their control in exchange for algorithmic manipulation that would secure the presidency for the right-wing candidate.

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“I cannot help but connect the negative attitude of the Inspector General with intelligence reports about conversations between the Bautista brothers and de la Espriella,” Petro said. He said the conversations involved “the promise, in return, of certain algorithms that would ensure the presidency for de la Espriella.”

The president warned that allowing a private firm to hold both citizen ID and passport databases while also computing preliminary election results creates a high risk of identity fraud and vote manipulation.

“It is simple,” Petro stated. “The majority of Colombians who left and did not return do not vote, and they can be made to vote by software. Millions of ID holders do not vote, and they can be made to vote by algorithms.”

Petro accused unnamed magistrates of attempting to annul the government’s current passport contract, which he said keeps citizen data under state control and uses new, world-class technology at the National Printing Office.

“In the midst of elections, that has a proper name: electoral fraud,” he underscored.

De la Espriella’s running mate, Petro noted, was co-author of the fiscal disaster under former President Iván Duque, which he described as “the greatest impoverishment of the people in the century.” Petro also warned that the Duquista majority on the central bank’s board now seeks to repeat that economic damage.

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