I want a “strong state” in Colombia against “criminals”, says candidate Gutiérrez

Neither on the right, nor in the center, nor with the government. Federico Gutiérrez shuns labels. I am “the candidate of common sense”, maintains the politician called by the traditional forces to contain an eventual and unprecedented rise of the left to power in Colombia.

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‘Fico’, the diminutive with which he campaigns, won in March the primaries of the coalition of movements that oppose Gustavo Petro, the senator and former guerrilla who all the polls give as the favorite in the presidential elections on May 29. Gutierrez hopes to force a ballot.

According to the latest Invamer survey on April 29, Petro is in the lead with 43.6% of the preferences, followed by Gutierrez with 26.7%.

“The dwarf grew up and we are going to win the presidency”, He says during a rally in Armenia (central-west). At 47, he is the youngest candidate in this race and has never held a national position. He was mayor of Medellín, the second city of Colombiabetween 2016 and 2019. He defends a strong hand against drug gangs and life imprisonment for corrupt and child rapists.

While his opponents insist on aligning him with power elites, Gutierrez defends his “independence”, emphasizing his career as a civil engineer.

“Who are our bosses? The people”, he repeats it as a mantra. When asked about his position against the unpopular government of Iván Duque, he manages to wriggle out of it to insist that he does not come from any “in-laws”.

Here are excerpts from his interview with AFP:

– Question: Why is safety your main flag?

– Answer: “There are territories in the country today where insecurity is experienced and here what we have to do is provide that peace of mind to the citizens. I believe a lot in the concept of comprehensive security, where there has to be a strong state in against of criminal structures.

It is that we are swimming in drugs: There are 245,000 hectares of illicit crops (…) and the financial strengthening of illegal structures such as the ELN, FARC dissidents, Clan del Golfo, Caparros [paramilitares y narcotraficantes] or the [carteles] What the Mexicans did was to strengthen themselves militarily and today they threaten the population.”

– Q: What is your position against drug traffickers and coca growers?

– A: “I believe in the crop substitution approach, the peasant cannot be the enemy, the peasant is a victim of these criminal structures, he is in the areas where the State has not arrived, where there are no roads to the countryside ( …) We are going to substitute, but here the fight is against criminal structures and my policy is about the interdiction of drug production routes and laboratories.

– Q: What do you fear from an eventual government of Gustavo Petro?

A: “Many things (…) because hate cannot dominate a ruler (…) Because whoever has a discourse of class struggle (…) comes to destroy the country even more. (…) While they want to expropriate, we want to respect private property, while they want to end the institutionality, I want to strengthen it so that we reach more Colombians. In other words, we are going to work to get people out of poverty, not to have more people in poverty, which is what would happen to them, that everything they touch is left in ashes”.

– Q: Continuity or change in the face of the Duque government?

A: “I come from a regional power, I am an ordinary Colombian, I do not come from a political class family; I do not come from a wealthy family, I have an independent process where my bosses are the citizens, where I have no political party and where everything that has worked in Colombia until today I will not only continue it but I will improve it. Once I am inaugurated as president, no one will see me speaking ill of other governments, I will not be thinking with a rear view mirror.

– Q: Do you prefer to be placed on the right or center-right?

A: I am the candidate of common sense and the president of the people. I was educated very far from political passions, because I don’t come from a political family and I have my independence, which I want is to work for Colombians.”

Source: Elcomercio

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