WASHINGTON—Today, 20 Members of Congress led by Representative Jim McGovern (MA-02) released the following statement condemning efforts by U.S. elected officials to interfere in Colombia’s presidential election and reaffirming that Colombia’s future must be decided by the Colombian people alone:
“We strongly support the sovereignty of the people of Colombia and their right to determine the future of their country. The peoples of the United States and Colombia have enjoyed two centuries of friendship and partnership, with democracy as a core shared value. We wholeheartedly support the right of the Colombian people to exercise their democratic freedoms.
“Colombia is in the middle of national elections that will determine the country’s next president. The right to select that president belongs to the people of Colombia, and to the people of Colombia alone.
“We see actions by U.S. President Donald Trump and other Members of Congress to endorse, advocate for, or otherwise tip the scales to a particular candidate as detrimental to the democratic rights of the Colombian people, an insult to their sovereignty and integrity, and wholly inconsistent with long-standing U.S. principles of non-interference in foreign elections. The future of Colombia must be decided by the Colombian people—not American politicians with their own agenda.
