Colombian presidential candidate Rodolfo Hernández has canceled his public activities ten days before the second round of the election against leftist Gustavo Petro, saying his life is at risk. The announcement was made by Hernández himself in a series of posts on Twitter.
“For my safety and to ensure the possibility of a democratic election on June 19 [data da votação]I have made the decision to cancel all my public appearances between now and the elections,” he wrote. “At this moment I am certain that my life is at risk.”
Later, in a press conference, Hernández, 77, said that a campaign was being carried out against him.
“They are planning to destroy us with false witnesses and false statements,” he said, without naming names or giving other details. “I’ve already received warnings that they would be trying to kill me. It won’t be with bullets, it will be with a knife.”
The former mayor of Bucaramanga, who surprised in the first round, surpassing names that were ahead of him in the polls, is running a campaign based on an anti-corruption speech and a strong presence on social networks – he makes daily reports through live broadcasts. His government program, however, is vague and mixes elements of the right and left.
The populist traveled to Florida, in the United States, to win the votes of the important local community. In the south of the state, there are 100,000 Colombian citizens eligible to vote, half of whom went to the polls in the first round.
The Colombian campaign had already been marked by the cancellation of events by Petro, 62, in early May. He, who led the research, suspended public acts after denouncing an alleged attempted murder – at the time, he would have meetings in the region known as Eixo Cafeeiro.
In a statement, the current senator’s press office said that the security team received information that the La Cordillera group was planning an attack against him. La Cordillera is identified as a cell that operates in the departments of Quindío, Caldas and Risaralda. His most recent attack culminated in the murder of a local activist leader, Lucas Villa, during protests last year.
Magnicides are not uncommon in Colombia’s recent political history. A former member of the M-19, like Petro, the then presidential candidate in 1990 Carlos Pizarro was murdered inside a plane, while traveling between campaign events.
In the same electoral race, there was the assassination of the liberal leader Luis Carlos Galán, at the time favorite to win the election, at the behest of the Medellin Cartel. Galán was a personal enemy of the then leader of the criminal faction, Pablo Escobar, and had been denouncing drug trafficking crimes that took place at the time, when ministers, newspaper owners and businessmen were also murdered.
The cartel also attacked and shot down an Avianca flight that was going from Bogotá to Cali, in an attempt to kill Cesar Gaviria, who took over Galán’s candidacy. It was, however, a planning error by the group, as the politician had changed plans and was not on board. In the attack, all 107 people on the aircraft were killed.
Also in that same campaign, which would later be won by Gaviria, the communist candidate Bernardo Jaramillo Ossa was also killed.
The most notable assassination in Colombian history, however, was that of Jorge Eliezer Gaitán, in 1948. The politician, who was to run in the presidential elections, was killed in broad daylight in the heart of Bogotá. The perpetrator was later killed by an angry mob and his body was dragged through the streets of the capital.
The current election, in the shadow of a recent increase in violence rates in the country, also saw an intrusion by the Armed Forces.
