Presidential candidates Abelardo de la Espriella and Iván Cepeda ended their presidential campaigns this Sunday (14) in multitudinous events, one week before a second electoral round that begins marked by polarization and a serious crisis of violence.
Far-right lawyer Abelardo de la Espriella held a rally this Sunday afternoon in the city of Buga (southwest), on a gigantic stage in front of thousands of people and protected by a booth covered in armored glass.
It was his last campaign event before the second round on June 21, in which he will face Senator Iván Cepeda, heir to President Gustavo Petro’s project.
“This is not just a political battle, it is a moral battle, it is a spiritual war”, said in his speech the candidate, who presents himself as an “outsider” and declares himself an admirer of the President of the United States, Donald Trump.
Thousands of supporters accompanied him with Colombian flags and national football team shirts.
“What we need is security to work and to move forward,” retired soldier Jimmy Henao told AFP.
Henao hopes that “the country will change with Tigre” and arrived with his wife from a nearby town in the department of Valle del Cauca, punished by the violence of armed groups financed by drug trafficking.
From the Caribbean city of Barranquilla, Cepeda also ended his campaign at a massive event in a peripheral area of the city.
“Fear and hatred intend to impose themselves on hope,” said the left-wing senator in his speech.
“We must look to the present with hope. We must not allow ourselves to be confused or intimidated,” he added.
Colombia is experiencing its worst wave of violence in the last decade, with frequent guerrilla attacks, massacres and extortion. During the campaign, presidential candidate Miguel Uribe was murdered.
From the beginning of his government, Petro established peace dialogues with the country’s main armed organizations as part of his “total peace” policy, of which Cepeda was one of the architects.
But none of these processes progressed, while criminal groups grew stronger in several regions of the country, according to analysts.
De la Espriella proposes replacing dialogues with a heavy-handed policy against criminals, whom he promises to subject “by reason or by force of law”.
“I will be firm against criminals, I will be blunt against the corrupt, I will be inflexible in the face of terrorism”, he added in Buga.
