The EOM has not received “any information” of Russian interference during the elections in Colombia

There was a big stir in public opinion after several media outlets revealed last weekend that the 2022 elections would be being infiltrated by Russia, a country that, supposedly, would also have financed several protests in Colombia. Faced with the panorama, Infobae consulted with Alejandra Barrios Cabrera, national director of the Electoral Observation Mission (MOE).

Barrios said that among the reports they receive periodically they do not have records or alerts that that nation has interfered in the legislative elections and internal consultations held last Sunday, March 13.

“The Electoral Observation Mission, during the pre-electoral process for elections of the Congress of the Republic, did not receive any information that would allow us to indicate that there was indeed any kind of intervention,” said the directive, at the same time announcing the problems and aspects that identified and marked the last elections.

It should be noted that Russia, currently ruled by Vladimir Putin, is in internal conflict with Ukraine. This situation has been rejected by the government of Iván Duque in Colombia and that is why, from the EOM, they consider that it is the Executive who must report the alleged Russian interference in the country. “It is up to the national Government to report whether or not the investigations carried out by the media had an impact on the elections that passed. We are not in an easy time, we are in a difficult time,” he urged.

The newspaper El Tiempo, a media outlet that announced the presence of Russians in the country, said that the Duque government had already been informed of this situation. In this regard, for the director of the EOM, the Colombian Presidency must inform whether they want to break diplomatic relations with the Putin government and that is why they have not reported on the subject of foreigners in the country.

“If what Colombia is looking for is to find reasons to break relations with Russia because of the Ukrainian issue, then I think it's worth putting that issue on the table,” Alejandra Barrios recommended.

Once again, he even reiterated that the Electoral Observation Mission in Colombia was not informed about the impact of that country in this year's elections. “That decision should be made by Foreign Affairs, from the Foreign Ministry (of Colombia), but not to point it out in the face of the electoral process, but rather be specific in what was affected (from Russia),” he said,

After alleged fraud was denounced by different political benches, the head of the EOM acknowledged that in Colombia “there is still a lot of distrust in the electoral process” and that is why she believes that action should be taken in the matter to give Colombians a bit of peace of mind.

“Including one more element (the alleged interference of Russia), without it being verified by the national government, by the Foreign Ministry, is not the best thing for the electoral process. This could end up generating that other citizens also begin to believe that the results obtained do not have to do with the citizen's will, but were modified by forces outside the Colombians,” he warned.

In addition, he directly referred to the alleged hack suffered by the page of the National Civil Status Registry on March 13 and clarified that the damage that entity faced was due to the “data transmission system that referred to pre-counting, it was not a problem of hacking if it was not a matter of errors in the transmission of data”, he said.

He also reiterated the position given by the Attorney General's Office, which ruled out a cyber attack and, like the Registry Office, reported that the collapse of the page was due to the fact that it “became saturated and did not withstand the large amount of traffic,” Barrios Cabrea said, adding:

The Electoral Observation Mission will seek, in unison with the country's electoral authorities, that the inconveniences of the past political process are not repeated, for this reason they announced some initiatives that they will develop soon.

“We are going to strengthen the electoral observation of (elections for the) Presidency of the Republic in a particular way, which has to do with the counting process. That is what we are talking to all regional allies in order to have an important pool of observers. Secondly, a roadmap in which we are making specific requests for access to information to the National Civil Status Assembly, with the aim of building trust,” he said.

To end his dialogue with Infobae, Barrios urged the Duque government and the Registrar's Office to provide greater pedagogy and guarantees so that the electoral processes that are coming to the country are held correctly.

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