Controversy over “social forgiveness” of Petro takes its toll on his image in the face of the presidential elections

The controversy over the visit of Juan Fernando Petro with the Inter-Church Commission for Justice and Peace, to speak with several prisoners in the country, at their request, and the clarifications of social pardon, seem to have managed to make a dent in the image of the candidate for the Presidency of the Republic for the Historical Pact, Gustavo Petro,.

Despite the fact that the candidate published a video in which he clarified the rumors that have emerged on social networks about a mass outflow of prisoners convicted of corruption within his government plan, the controversy is taking its toll on him.

In the most recent measurement of the survey by the National Center of Consultancy conducted for the CM& News program on the candidate's perception after the controversy, carried out on 211 citizens of Bogotá, Medellín, Cali, Barranquilla and Bucaramanga, reveals that half of the respondents said that Gustavo Petro's image worsened after the stir in the media.

Forty-eight per cent of respondents said that the negative image of the candidate increased; 21 per cent said that it improved and 31 per cent said that they do not know anything about the subject.

The cities that reported the greatest increase in the negative image were Medellin with 52%, Bucaramanga with 59% and Bogotá with 49%. When respondents were asked that if Petro's controversy caused them to change their voting intention, 63% said no, but 19% said they did decide to leave for another option. Bucaramanga, Barranquilla and Cali are the cities where the change was most recorded, according to the pollster.

But in Bogotá and Medellín, the majority responded that their vote will remain the same as they had decided before the scandal.

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 used in the media, in ballot discounts, just because the one who made the visit is my brother,” noted the Pact Histórico candidate 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 an issue that I have been fighting for since, Alvaro Uribe Vélez, put the law of justice and peace in the debate to Congress, to pardon, he does, armed drug trafficking.”

For her part, the Caucan leader assured that the information was manipulated to harm the 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 raised 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.”

KEEP READING: