Gustavo Petro visited Cienaga de Oro, where he was born, and again referred to social forgiveness

The Colombian presidential candidate for the Historic Pact movement, Gustavo Petro Urrego, included in his campaign itinerary the municipality of Ciénaga de Oro (Córdoba), where the politician came from and where he lived until he reached second grade, when his family moved to Zipaquirá (Cundinamarca).

In that place he held a session of Petro Escucha, an initiative in which the senator receives proposals from the people who inhabit the territories with the purpose of incorporating them into his government plan. Most of the people who put forward ideas were community leaders.

In his speech to the inhabitants of the municipality, the candidate reminded them that, if he won the presidency, it would be the first time that a person born in Córdoba would hold the honor of being the country's first president. He also noted that one of the biggest wounds of the department is the problem of the division of land and water, which, according to him, would be mainly in the hands of men with ample purchasing power.

“In the department of Córdoba, how many people have been killed for owning the land, owning the water? They are not seeing the earth as an instrument of production, but as an instrument of power. Like the Spanish feudal lords did centuries ago. It's gone out of fashion a long time ago. In the capitalist world, land is for production, not just to have it,” said Petro.

He also mentioned that on one occasion, in a face-to-face talk with Carlos Castaño Gil, head of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), the deceased paramilitary said that his organization was returning the department of Córdoba to its natural state, to which he replied: “The natural state of Cordoba is not having the fat boats and skinny children.”

Recalling the same conversation, Petro said he warned Castaño of his death at the hands of his own men, “because the one who deals in cocaine ends up being killed by his own greedy troops.”

In addition, regarding the scandal caused by visits to prisons by his brother, Juan Fernando Petro, and the Senator-elect of the Historical Covenant, Piedad Córdoba, the candidate suggested that traditional politics had demonized the concept of forgiveness, which used to be a Christian value proposed by Jesus.

Regarding his visit to Ciénaga de Oro and the Caribbean department of Córdoba, the presidential candidate announced the appointment of renowned lawyer Miguel Ángel del Río, who is today the defender of former congressman Aida Merlano, to bring complaints that militants of the Historical Pact collect about the buying and selling of votes in the Caribbean during the presidential elections.

“We have appointed attorney Miguel Ángel del Rio, to build the team that will prosecute all vote buyers in the Caribbean. Buying votes is a crime against democracy. Take out videos, report them. Let them know they won't be able to,” Petro said.

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