Colombia’s Historic Pact, the ruling leftist coalition led by President Gustavo Petro, chose Senator Iván Cepeda as its 2026 presidential candidate in Sunday’s primary elections.
Cepeda — a leftist Senator, philosopher, and “human rights advocate” — vowed that, if elected president, he would continue Gustavo Petro’s policies. Cepeda is best known in the country as the man who controversially tried to imprison conservative former President Álvaro Uribe Vélez in a recently overturned convoluted judicial process.
Colombia will hold a presidential election on May 31, 2026, with a prospective runoff in late June should no candidate obtain more than 50 percent of the votes in the first round. Petro is ineligible to run for president ever again, as Colombia’s constitution strictly establishes that a president may only serve for a single four-year term with no possibility for reelection.
On Sunday, the ruling Historic Pact coalition held its 2026 presidential candidate primary, resulting in Cepeda obtaining around 65 percent of votes, doubling that of former Health Minister Carolina Corcho, who came in second place.
According to El Colombiano, voter turnout for the primary was measured at 2.37 million — a fraction of the 5.8 million participants documented in the Historic Pact’s 2022 election primary, which resulted in Petro obtaining 4.5 million votes, becoming the coalition’s candidate.
El Colombiano further noted that the low participation resulted in departments (states) such as Santander and Antioquia experiencing turnout rates of lower than three percent. The newspaper pointed out that about 13 percent of the ballots cast were either left blank or incorrectly marked, which rendered them “null.” President Petro was elected in 2022 with about 11 million votes.
“Democracy prevails and must be obeyed. The people have freely chosen. And now it is up to Colombian society to decide whether to move forward or backward,” President Petro wrote on social media.
Cepeda is a 63-year-old leftist senator and philosopher who describes himself as a “human rights defender and peace worker.” Cepeda participated in the 2012-2016 “peace process” between Colombia and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) Marxist terror group that concluded with a “peace deal” in 2016 during the administration of former President Juan Manual Santos, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for the effort.
Cepeda also participated in so-called “peace” negotiations with the National Liberation Army (ELN) Marxist terror group between 2015 and 2018. Presently, both FARC and ELN continue to operate in Colombian territory, conducting terrorist attacks, drug trafficking, and recruiting minors, among other heinous activities. FARC members have been identified by the Colombian government to have been behind the assassination of conservative Senator Miguel Uribe Turbay earlier this year.
“The Historic Pact is undoubtedly the largest, most powerful, and most influential political force in the country today. Not only because of this quantitative electoral demonstration, but also because it has committed itself to democracy. We have shown that we are an essentially democratic force, that we are not afraid of democracy, and that we have measured ourselves at the polls with the citizens,” Cepeda told his followers after the primary results were announced.
Cepeda was also a central figure in the over decade-long judicial process involving former President Álvaro Uribe Vélez. In 2012, Uribe sued Cepeda for allegedly looking for paramilitary members to testify against Uribe and link him to the purported creation of a paramilitary group in the 1990s on a ranch that belonged to Uribe’s family. In 2018, the Colombian Supreme Court dismissed Uribe’s original lawsuit and, in a surprising move, opened a new case against Uribe on allegations of committing fraud and witness tampering in his original lawsuit against Cepeda.
The convoluted judicial process has continued ever since, leading to Uribe being convicted and sentenced in late July on two abuse and bribery charges. At the time, Secretary of State Marco Rubio denounced that the weaponization of Colombia’s judicial branch by radical judges “has now set a worrisome precedent.”
A Colombian appeals court overturned Uribe’s conviction last week on grounds that the trial against the former president was marred with numerous irregularities and violations of Uribe’s rights. The appeals court determined that Judge Sandra Heredia, who presided over the trial against Uribe, was biased in her ruling and committed several errors throughout the process. Cepeda condemned the appeals court’s decision and said he could bring the matter to the Supreme Court, asserting that “the goal is not prison [for Uribe], it is justice and truth.”
At press time, the Historic Pact coalition is in a legal process with Colombia’s National Electoral Council over its legal status. Historic Pact aims to merge all of the leftist parties that presently form part of the coalition under a single, unified party bearing the coalition’s name and logos.
In March, the “Broad Front,” a separate coalition of other leftist parties, are aiming to hold a joint interparty primary process to determine a unified leftist presidential candidate ahead of the May 2026 election. Cepeda’s participation at the March joint primary remains undetermined at press time, pending the electoral authority’s decision involving Historic Pact.
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