Outgoing Marxist President of Colombia Gustavo Petro announced Tuesday that he will begin the transition with conservative President-elect Abelardo de la Espriella — a statement he wrote at the tail end of one of his longest and most unhinged social media rants to date.
“We are divided down the middle, and it is time to acknowledge and respect one another and reach an agreement. The transition will begin, along with my departure, and perhaps peaceful resistance,” Petro wrote on social media.
Petro had not publicly recognized the results of Colombia’s 2026 presidential runoff election. The message marked the first time Petro has announced that he will begin a transition process with President-elect de la Espriella’s incoming administration. Gustavo Petro is set to leave office on August 7, 2026, the last day of his four-year term.
Abelardo de la Espriella was elected the next president of Colombia in Sunday’s presidential runoff election, defeating Petro’s protegé, far-left Senator Iván Cepeda. On Tuesday, Colombia’s National Civil Registry announced that the final vote count of Sunday’s election is a 99.997-percent match with Sunday’s pre-count — confirming the results of the election and de la Espriella’s victory.
Petro’s message announcing the start of the presidential transition, however, was part of an over 4,400-word rant — split into seven posts — in which the Marxist president lamented the outcome of the election. Petro also levied new accusations of “electoral interference” against President Donald Trump over his endorsement of the conservative president-elect, comparing his endorsement to the circumstances that led to the annulment of the late 2024 elections in Romania.
“Well, we’re not in Romania but in Colombia, and in Colombia, a foreign president, with all the power of missiles and money at his disposal, has confessed that, thanks to him, the U.S. citizen Abelardo de la Espriella is now president. During his oath of citizenship, de la Espriella kissed the U.S. flag and swore allegiance to the United States above all other nations on earth, including Colombia,” Petro wrote, referring to de la Espriella’s American citizenship.
Petro argued that the results of the election do not mean that Trump “won in Colombia, and he knows it.” The president affirmed that Trump’s “interference” in the Colombian election gives him, Petro, the faculty to do “politics in the United States.” He stressed, however, that he must learn the English language first and find someone who can teach it to him.
“As President Donald Trump knows, I have a great many gringo and Black friends in the U.S., a great many, and they’re powerful because they’re always surrounded by decent people,” Petro said.
“My warm regards to Jesse Jackson’s family. I want to reread Walt Whitman in English, a true libertarian, and Ernest Hemingway, the author of ‘For Whom the Bell Tolls.’ For whom does the bell toll today?” he continued.
Despite the sheer emotional content of his extensive and at times nonsensical rant, Petro claimed that he is “not defeated. I am dancing, and if I weep I weep for my people for those who still choose their enslavers, executioners, and murderers.”
“I’m not crying for Colombia, Colombia isn’t crying for me because it will see me joyful, sometimes pensive, dressed in white, not like the drug lords, you idiots, drug lords hardly ever wear white, but they do wear black and a tie,” Petro wrote.
“I’m dancing, and I’m overjoyed by the great triumph my people have achieved before all of humanity, a beautiful people who didn’t let themselves be deceived by the algorithms funded by President Donald Trump and his friends, and the genocidal Netanyahu,” he continued.
In another part of his statement, Petro expressed dismay that he has to give up power. He stated that he finds himself in a position of having to hand over a “cold palace” and an “even colder” sword that belonged to Venezuelan founding father Simón Bolívar — which remains in the custody of the Colombian state. The relic, which was once stolen by the Marxist M19 terror group that Petro belonged to, had seemingly been co-opted by Petro the past.
“I feel as if I had to hand over Bolívar’s sword to a viceroy,” Petro lamented, referencing Colombia’s history under Spanish colonial rule.
Far-left Senator Iván Cepeda accepted the results of the election on Wednesday morning — recognizing Abelardo de la Espriella as the winner of the election and the next president of Colombia. Cepeda’s acceptance of the results, three days after the election, came hours after Petro published his latest long and unhinged rant on social media.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.