Gustavo Petro and Francia Márquez spoke again of 'social forgiveness': “Anyone who wants to talk about peace must talk about reconciliation”

The candidate for the presidency of Colombia for the Historical Pact, Gustavo Petro, continues to arouse criticism since the controversy that broke out after it was announced that his brother, Juan Fernando Petro, had a conversation with the prisoner Iván Moreno in the La Picota Prison in Bogotá; and that he will justify the fact by ending ' social forgiveness. '

“What he (Iván Moreno) has suggested to us is to be a builder of something that I have proposed, which is called social forgiveness. This is being discussed within prisons: what would be called social forgiveness,” Petro noted in an interview he gave to W Radio; and in which he began to be accused of making agreements with people accused of corruption in exchange for votes.

Given the comments he has received on social networks and the questions left by this episode, which would be the strongest he has had to face since his campaign began, Gustavo Petro together with his vice-presidential formula Francia Márquez spoke with Noticias Caracol and clarified some points.

“It seems to me that what was discussed was the P for peace. My brother's visit is made in the middle of the Inter-Church Commission, an organization funded by the German-Catholic Church, the Norwegian evangelical churches and Amnesty International. The controversy arose because someone confused the visit (...) they transformed it into, a phrase they use in the media, in ballot discounts, just because the one who made the visit is my brother,” noted the candidate of the Historical Pact to the Colombian newspaper.

He also clarified that “they have never offered reductions in sentences to anyone”, but that they have spoken within their restorative justice program: “To restore and compensate the victim. This is a topic that I have been fighting for since Álvaro Uribe Vélez put the Justice and Peace Law into the debate in Congress, to pardon, he did, armed drug trafficking.”

For her part, the Caucan leader assured that the information was manipulated to damage a campaign and that this is proven by the prisoners who deny the accusations against possible alliances with the Historical Pact: “The truth is that the offer that is proposed at that meeting was never made.” He added that corrupt people do not deserve social forgiveness, because “corruption costs lives, thanks to corruption children die of hunger in this country, thanks to corruption in my own community there is no drinking water, thanks to corruption many young people do not have guarantees for rights. Corruption takes, according to the Comptroller's Office, it takes 50 billion pesos a year.”

To conclude his speech, the presidential candidate noted that the problem of corruption lies in the very structure of society: “Look what is happening in Colombia, they have demonized the word forgiveness. When we talk about social forgiveness we talk about social reconciliation, anyone who wants to talk about peace has to talk about reconciliation of society. The journalists took and reduced the concept to corruption and not to what it is, which is to the definitive resolution of violence with Colombia.”

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