Candidates for the Presidency of Colombia reject possible attack on Gustavo Petro

Several candidates for the Presidency of Colombialike other politicians, condemned on Monday the alleged plan to attack Gustavo Petro, leader in voting intention polls, who suspended a tour of the Eje Cafetero region (center).

The campaign of Petrocandidate of the leftist Historical Pact, assured today in a statement that “According to the work carried out by the security team (of Petro) who received first-hand information from sources in the area, the La Cordillera criminal group is planning an attempt on the life of the presidential candidate.”

Look: Gustavo Petro or Fico Gutiérrez: Who leads the latest presidential poll in Colombia?

In solidarity with Petrothe candidate of the Hope Center Coalition, Sergio Fajardo, said on his Twitter account that “In Colombia we cannot afford to doubt or delegitimize a death threat. These complaints must be processed with all rigor.

The independent populist Rodolfo Hernández spoke along the same lines, assuring that “threatening a candidate with death is threatening democracy with death.”

Humberto de la Calle, who was the government’s chief negotiator in the peace talks with the FARC, assured that “You don’t need to be a follower of Petrowhich I am not, to repudiate a possible attempt on his life”.

Meanwhile, former presidential candidate Enrique Peñalosa said that he rejected any possible attack against Petro because “his life is sacred, like any other, and he is an important leader” here in the “Democracy must provide all guarantees.

Hours after denouncing the alleged plan to attack him by the La Cordillera gang, which operates mainly in the departments of Quindío, Caldas and Risaralda, Petro He regretted that he had to suspend his political tour in that part of the country, which was to take place this Tuesday and Wednesday.

“Unfortunate that you have to suspend the tour of the Coffee Region. The passage of the corrupt sectors to pay gangs of assassins for my physical elimination, shows the political desperation to which they have reached”, manifested Petro in social networks.

ROBUST SECURITY SCHEME

Meanwhile, the Police assured in a statement that “So far, he has no intelligence information or information linked to judicial proceedings that would allow inferring the existence of a criminal plan against the candidate of the Historical Pact movement.”

The institution recalled that Petro have “one of the most robust security schemes in the country” and that, furthermore, every time the presidential campaign holds events throughout the national territory, it is “dThey provide all the necessary support to guarantee their life, integrity and political activity.”

The Minister of Defense, Diego Molano, also assured that neither his portfolio nor the Police have intelligence information that would allow “determine the existence of a criminal plan.

The candidate of the Historical Pact has the greatest intention to vote according to the polls, which in any case do not guarantee victory in the first round, which will be held on May 29, so a second round would be necessary on June 19.

In Colombia, three presidential candidates for the 1990 elections were assassinated, among them the Liberal leader Luis Carlos Galán Sarmiento, who was shot in a public square in Soacha, a municipality near Bogotá, on August 18, 1989.

Similarly, on March 22, 1990, hit men assassinated Bernardo Jaramillo Ossa, a candidate for the left-wing Patriotic Union party, and on April 26, 1990, Carlos Pizarro, a candidate for the M-19 Democratic Alliance, into which the former guerrilla of the M-19 after signing a peace agreement with the Government.

Source: Elcomercio

Deshawn