President Petro ignited the controversy again by directly referring to the issue of presidential re-election, in a message published this Monday, January 26, on his X account, less than seven months after the end of his constitutional mandate.
The president criticized the constitutional reforms that allowed the re-election of Álvaro Uribe Vélez and Juan Manuel Santos, ensuring that these modifications selectively benefited both former presidents while closing that possibility for future leaders.
“At first, Uribe changed the Constitution to get re-elected and then Santos changed it later, to allow him to be re-elected and prevent it for everyone else”Petro stated in his trill, adding that “only Uribe and Santos were allowed to be re-elected.”
The head of state argued that that political cycle is now behind us and that Colombia is currently going through a profound change in its majorities. “Here it is expressed again that the majority is different and that Colombia wants to progress and allow progress for everyone,” he pointed out.
Petro assured that Colombian citizens “It has changed, it knows what it wants and it is willing for Colombia to continue its deeply democratic transformation under the libertarian and democratic guidance of the sword of the Liberator.”
However, the most controversial part of his message came when the president attacked the State institutions that, according to him, oppose the popular will. “It is bad that established institutions oppose what the people want,” he expressed harshly.
The president went further and concluded: “Disobeying the people is not democracy or democratic counterweights; it is simply irrational and undemocratic obstruction of a nation’s desires for justice and progress.”
These statements generated immediate reaction on social networks, where various users took a heavy toll on the president.
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“President Petro, are you saying that you want reelection? That you are willing to obtain it even if it is by breaking the constitutional and legal order? This, in the middle of an election year, is very serious,” questioned a user on X.
Another Internet user was more emphatic: “Petro not only lies: he threatens Colombia’s institutions. Calling the Court and the checks and balances ‘irrational obstruction’ is an insult and a challenge to the rule of law. This is the direct path to the concentration of power and autocracy.”
It should be remembered that presidential re-election is currently prohibited in Colombia. The Constitution establishes that Petro must hand over power on August 7, 2026, the date on which his presidential term ends.
This is not the first time that the president directly refers to the issue of re-election. In November 2025, during an event in the Plaza de Armas of the Casa de Nariño, Petro addressed the issue publicly.
“We are already finishing this Government. When I came in, there was a sector out there that said that I was going to stay here as a dictator, and no matter what, every day they repeated the same thing, and notice that it was not true”stated the president on that occasion.
The president’s message comes at a crucial moment for the country, which in 2026 will elect a new Congress and Petro’s successor in the House of Nariño, in elections that will define the new political map of Colombia.
At first Uribe changed the constitution to get himself re-elected and then Santos changed it later, to allow him to be re-elected and prevent it for everyone else.
Only Uribe and Santos were allowed to be re-elected; But here it is expressed again, that the majority is different, and that Colombia wants… pic.twitter.com/6uRzkyanBl
— Gustavo Petro (@petrogustavo) January 26, 2026
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