Gustavo Petro is sick and missed two events on his schedule this Thursday

The agenda of the presidential candidate for the Historical Pact, Gustavo Petro Urrego, was full for this Thursday, March 31: at ten in the morning he was invited to the Hotel Tequendama in Bogotá, where he would receive support for his presidential candidacy by the Citizen Force movement. In addition, he had been invited to a debate of candidates for the Presidency organized by the Pontifical Javeriana University of the same city.

However, Petro canceled his participation in both events at the last minute because he woke up with symptoms of general malaise. In some media, such as RCN Radio and Blu Radio, they assured that the former mayor of Bogotá underwent a PCR test to rule out a case of symptomatic covid-19, but this information was not fully confirmed by the campaign team.

The Javeriana debate was attended by dozens of students who lined up in the auditorium in order to listen specifically to this candidate. Their efforts were not rewarded: they were informed that Petro would not arrive and they began to leave the compound claiming other occupations.

Other students waited for the same time in the auditorium to hear the Team's candidate for Colombia, Federico Gutiérrez. However, Fico canceled his participation on the grounds that he would not attend a debate in which Petro was not present.

Ingrid Betancourt, candidate for the Oxygen Green Party, arrived at the Jesuit University and was planning to retire, as she recalled the words of candidate John Milton Rodriguez in the Externado University debate: “please, let's not accept debates where they don't include all of us; let's be supportive and let us all express ourselves.”

However, Betancourt remained at the willingness of Sergio Fajardo, candidate of the Esperanza Center Coalition, to stay and answer questions from students, who due to their age and inexperience are potential center voters. Ingrid and Fajardo debated for a couple of hours before those who decided to stay and listen to them.

At noon, Gustavo Petro's press team insisted that the event of the Citizen Force movement would not be canceled. For more than six hours he was waited by journalists from various media outlets and supporters of the movement to which figures such as Hollman Morris, Guillermo Tobón and the governor of Magdalena, Carlos Caicedo belong.

Finally, around half past three in the afternoon, Senator Armando Benedetti, who is being Petro's right-hand man during this presidential campaign, made his appearance on stage. He assured that the candidate “planned to come, he was on the agenda as a very important issue, but he is indisposed and is undergoing some examinations”, although he did not specify which ones.

However, he promised that vice-presidential candidate Francia Márquez would arrive to start the scheduled event, as she flew from Cali to Bogota to replace Petro as soon as she learned he had fallen ill.

In fact, Marquez arrived at the venue around four o'clock in the afternoon. He assured that Petro was subjected to a covid-19 test and that they must wait for the results so that he can return to public events. He also said that she has not had close contact with him in recent days, so she does not suspect a contagion.

When asked why he canceled his schedule in Cali to attend the Fuerza Ciudadana event, he replied:

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