Vargas Lleras' wife called Luis Felipe Henao, Federico Gutiérrez's new debate chief traitor

Luis Felipe Henao's accession to Federico Gutiérrez's campaign as head of debate ended up moving the campaign. The movement showed discomfort, if not in the sector of Germán Vergas Lleras, at least in his wife, Luz María Zapata, current executive director of Asocapitales.

Henao was Minister of Housing during the administration of Juan Manuel Santos and left that government to be the vice-presidential formula for Vargas Lleras in 2018. “I have selected it as a reward for loyalty,” said the candidate during the registration, but it didn't last for a few days when he was replaced with Juan Carlos Pinzón.

Even so, Henao is a right-hand man of Vargas Lleras and, as he told the newspaper El Tiempo, his task in Gutiérrez's campaign will be to bring the Radical Change party closer in a programmatic way with the natural leader of that collective.

However, the greeting of the former vice president's wife was not in cordial terms. Zapata, who runs Asocapitales, posted on his personal Instagram account a photograph of Henao and his wife, Luz Stella Murgas, in which he called them traitors.

“Treason is the word that best defines the partner of Luis Felipe Henao and his wife. I have suffered from them for many years”, was the message that accompanied the image.

Zapata was consulted by several media outlets, in which she assured that her publication is personal and does not compromise Germán Vargas, nor is it a political message. He even separated his words from the mayor's office of Federico Gutiérrez, whom he recognizes as a good ruler.

The controversial statement surprised multiple people from both political sectors and it has not yet been possible to establish what is the reason behind or the betrayal that they would have done with Zapata for her to decide to send that message.

Former Minister Henao spoke to Blu Radio and assured that he was taken by surprise by the message and does not understand why he did it. He said that he spoke to Vargas Lleras about the decision to join Gutiérrez's campaign, so he does not consider that the message also compromises the former vice president.

The truth is that Radical Change has not made a formal decision in the face of the presidential campaigns. Although they registered a candidate, with the possibility that Vargas Lleras would arrive, the non-legislative results ruined the possibility. They did not accompany Alejandro Char, who remains in the Team for Colombia, and they have stayed out of support.

Federico Gutiérrez, in dialogue with W Radio, said that he has known Zapata since when he was mayor of Medellin and served on the board of directors of Asocapitales and they maintain a good friendship. However, he did not understand the message and considered that it was a personal issue where he preferred to stay out of it.

Luz Stella Murgas, Henao's wife, is president of the Colombian Association of Natural Gas, from which she has maintained a close relationship with the national government of President Iván Duque. He had previously been vice president of the Promotion and Allocation of Areas of the National Hydrocarbons Agency (ANH).

At the Ministry of Housing in Hainaut, at the end of 2016, the contract with analyst Natalia Springer sounded. This caused discomfort in several members of the party and close to Vargas Lleras, but according to the newspaper La República, the only defence left for the then minister in the vice president's circle was Zapata.

But that close friendship ended up breaking down now. Vargas Lleras's wife would also have sounded like a possibility in the vice-presidential election of Gustavo Petro, said La FM, following a meeting of the candidate of the Historical Pact with the former vice president in early March.

KEEP READING: