“As president I will comply with the peace accords”: Federico Gutiérrez, on April 9

On the subject of the National Day of Memory and Solidarity with the Victims of the Armed Conflict, which is commemorated every April 9 since the promulgation of Law 1448 of 2011, the presidential candidate of the Team for Colombia, Federico Gutiérrez, spoke out.

From the municipality of Jericó (Antioquia), where his Holy Week agenda began, the former mayor of Medellín sent a message to his followers to “remember those who have left and those who have been left missing their loved ones, those who have forced to leave their lands, those who suffer and have suffered because of violence. There are events so painful that sometimes we try to erase, but memory is important so that the horrors we have experienced do not happen again.”

Although in his video he mentioned that “here there are victims of paramilitarism, of guerrillas, of common day-to-day violence,” the right-wing candidate spoke in a special way of reparation for the victims of the extinct FARC guerrilla.

He assured that he will comply with the Final Agreement with an emphasis on victims. It should be recalled that Gutiérrez voted in favour of the plebiscite to implement this agreement in 2016 and his official position is that he does not think it is useful to discuss whether it is a good agreement or not, but to put it into effect without buts.

The candidate ended his message by saying that “Colombia definitely has the right to live in peace always on the side of the victims.”

This Saturday, Federico Gutiérrez toured the streets of Jericho, a municipality with high religious roots, to meet with supporters of his campaign in this region.

In addition, the candidate took the opportunity to visit the house of Saint Laura Montoya Upegui, a religious who was canonized in May 2013 and became the first person born in Colombia to receive the title of saint.

The house where the teacher and missionary was born is a tourist attraction in Jericho. The candidate, who accepts without regret that he professes the Catholic faith, said that he made several requests during his visit to that place.

On the other hand, Jericho is a town recognized as the birthplace of the carriel, a leather bag worn on the belt and is part of the traditional antioquian clothing.

One public figure who is constantly associated with the use of the carriel is the former president of Colombia, Álvaro Uribe Vélez. In fact, he had the audacity to give him one of these bags at his last audience with the late Pope John Paul II.

In addition, in his last term as Senator of the Republic, Uribe supported the initiative of Senator Ruby Chagüí — of the Democratic Center party, which he created — to declare it a national heritage; so that the carriel has become an icon of Uribism.

Candidate Federico Gutiérrez has not received official support from the Democratic Center party, due to a political calculation according to which Uribism would subtract votes from him. However, several of its members have shown their support for the candidate. It is up to them: in Jericho he gladly received a lane and posed in several photographs with him.

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