Joint Statement of the Socialist Workers Party – (LIT-CI) and the Workers and Socialist Unity – (ISL)

As revolutionary socialist organizations -which consider that the great needs of millions of workers, exploited and oppressed of the country and the world have no solution as long as the capitalist economic, social and political structure is maintained- we consider it convenient to publicly express our agreement to call to vote in the first round of the presidential elections (and in a possible second round) for Iván Cepeda and Aida Quilcué.

Under no circumstances does our vote represent a coincidence with the program and strategy of the Historical Pact, nor of Iván Cepeda. The government of Gustavo Petro and himself, whose fundamental orientations Cepeda vindicates and proposes to continue, openly proclaims that their proposal is not anti-capitalist, on the contrary, that what they propose is to develop capitalism; even if they say that this capitalism must have a human face.

Despite the above, Petro’s victory in 2022 and the formation of his government expressed in a distorted manner the heroic struggle, for decades, of millions of workers of the country against a deeply reactionary regime, violator of the most elementary human rights, which plunged millions into extreme misery, which murdered tens of thousands. That is why this electoral triumph generated so many expectations and illusions; many of which still remain and are expressed in the support to the formula of Iván Cepeda and Aida Quilcué.

Those who electorally confront Cepeda today, especially Abelardo de la Espriella and Paloma Valencia, are an expression of the old political, economic and social order against which we fought for decades, shoulder to shoulder with the militants and leaders of the Historical Pact. Always in the past we pointed out to them that our objective was not to reform that regime but to destroy it.

Today, maintaining that profound difference with the defense of capitalism proclaimed by their leadership, we accompany them in the electoral contest against the defenders of that old regime, telling them that reforms to it are not enough; that it is necessary to leave that framework and raise the banner of a revolution that destroys that regime and adopts economic and social measures that initiate a process of socialist transformations.

The current regressive electoral legislation, of which the Historical Pact has been an accomplice, constitutes an objective barrier that prevents the presentation of a true alternative of class independence that materializes in candidates and program for minority forces like ours. Not being able to raise candidates of class independence, who demand a revolutionary program, in order to participate we are faced with the dilemma of the null vote, blank vote, abstention or critical vote; none of which is the best option for a revolutionary participation in elections, but they are the ones imposed by reality and we must opt for any of them, according to the concrete conditions.

None of the reforms proposed by the Petro government, even the most radical, are a stable and definitive solution to the needs of millions. Despite this, it is impossible to ignore that for many they mean a temporary relief that it is a duty to support and fight for them to be broadened and deepened; despite their insufficiency.

Nor do we share the agreements, negotiations and pacts that have been made, and Cepeda continues to make, with those who, also for decades, have been participants in the old order and who today only accommodate themselves to maintain their privileges. We reject the Benedetti and the like. It will not be by making pacts and conciliating with bourgeois sectors such as those they represent that we will be able to advance in the transformations that are needed.

In calling on the workers, the poor peasants, the inhabitants of the popular neighborhoods of the big cities, the indigenous people and the Afro-descendant communities to support Cepeda with their vote, we say to them at the same time: only by organizing independently, demanding from the government -whichever it is configured- the solution to their needs, understanding that it is struggle and direct mobilization -and not negotiations in Parliament or with the Courts- the road that can lead us to a definitive defeat of the current economic, social and political order, that capitalist order, against which we call to fight.

Workers and Socialist Unity – UNITE! – Socialist Workers Party – PST-C

Bogotá, May 26, 2026