Laura Gamba
08 June 2026•Update: 08 June 2026
Colombian President Gustavo Petro sparked a fresh regional diplomatic controversy on Monday after getting a head start on official results to celebrate an alleged victory for candidate Roberto Sanchez of the Juntos por el Peru party in Peru’s presidential election.
With Peru’s National Office of Electoral Processes (ONPE) reporting an absolute statistical tie, Petro prematurely congratulated Sanchez and declared the defeat of conservative candidate Keiko Fujimori, drawing immediate attention to his history of fraught relations with Lima.
“Progressivism has just won the Peruvian presidency and defeated the country’s most extreme right-wing force, represented by the Fujimori family,” Petro posted on his account on the US social media company X.
The Colombian leader was responding to an unverified social media post that took Sanchez’s victory in Sunday’s high-stakes runoff for granted.
Petro asserted that the tightly contested election results serve as a direct “vindication” of former Peruvian President Pedro Castillo. Sanchez, a congressman and former minister, ran as the political protege and representative of the imprisoned ex-leader.
Castillo was removed from office by Peru’s Congress on Dec. 7, 2022, after staging an ill-fated "auto-coup" in which he announced the dissolution of the legislature and declared a state of emergency to rule by decree.
Following his arrest by local authorities, Vice President Dina Boluarte took power, a transition the Petro administration has consistently refused to recognize.
Petro’s vocal defense of Castillo previously triggered a severe bilateral crisis with the Boluarte administration, culminating in the Peruvian Congress declaring the Colombian president persona non grata.
Petro declared on Monday that he would bypass the current government to rebuild ties.
“I will fully restore diplomatic relations and ask the new president to begin merging the Andean Pact with Mercosur,” Petro wrote.
While Petro claimed an outright victory for the political left, official data from Peru’s electoral authorities painted a different, razor-thin picture.
According to the latest ONPE bulletin, with 93.77% of polling stations processed, Keiko Fujimori of the Fuerza Popular holds a marginal lead with 50.01% of the vote. Roberto Sanchez of Juntos por el Peru follows closely with 49.99%.
The candidates are separated by an incredibly tight margin of just 4,000 votes—a difference of less than 0.02%. Electoral chief Roberto Burneo has appealed for patience and political responsibility, warning that a definitive outcome could take up to 30 days as contested and international ballots arrive in Lima.
