Colombia’s Outgoing President Says Israeli Firm Meddled in Election

Colombia’s outgoing president, Gustavo Petro, has accused Israeli cyber intelligence firm BlackCore of meddling in the country’s recent election. Petro alleges BlackCore deployed “500,000 bots – fake profiles – to manipulate the Colombian electorate with millions of lies about Ivan and me,” referring to himself and his ally Ivan Cepeda, who narrowly lost the presidential run-off on June 21 to Abelardo de la Espriella. Petro previously claimed foreign actors, specifically “the state of Israel,” manipulated polling data, though Colombia’s attorney general dismissed these allegations due to a lack of evidence. French authorities also recently accused BlackCore of interfering in elections in Scotland, New York, France, Angola, and Togo. BlackCore has since deleted its online presence.