They denounce harassment of signatories of the recall of the mayor of Pitalito, Huila

Almost 8,000 signatures were validated, of the more than 20,000 that were collected, in order to begin the recall process against Edgar Muñoz López, mayor of Pitalito, municipality in the department of Huila. This process awaits the governor, Luis Enrique Dussán López, to define the date of the vote that will define whether or not the recall is effective.

Well, Noticias Uno denounced that Mayor Edgar Muñoz ordered the officials of his administration to search for all the people who signed the revocation form validated by the National Registry, in order for these citizens to verify the legitimacy of this and “give reasons” as to why they signed.

A video leaked by the media of an event held in the district of Charaguayaco, organized by the president and his secretaries (just one day after the Registrar's Office notified him of the validity of the signatures) shows that Edgar Muñoz asks the attendees to contact him personally, by telephone, e-mail or through administration officials; in order to “report these rogues who take advantage of you, forging signatures and personal documents”.

But, María Eugenia Herrera, spokeswoman for the recall committee, says that the mayor ordered to go out and look for all the people who appeared on the lists, in order to check if they were really included and if so, ask them to withdraw the signatures. It was even confirmed that the mayor created a website, to “report impersonations”.

Herrera denounces that, coincidentally, many of the “false signatures” are from contractors, family members of them or collaborators of both the administration and the first ones reviewed, who are close to the mayor.

In addition, he says that “goals” were proposed published in WhatsApp groups, created by the mayor's officials themselves to delegitimize the recall. In one of the screenshots he has as evidence, it is stated:

Even some officials report being victims of persecution. In addition, they say that they were forced to search databases for information that would be useful, obtained from neighborhoods and villages for 3 days in a row.

Following the validation of the signatures, Mayor Muñoz spoke publicly,

He also claims that he is working with a team of lawyers to prove that citizens are not against him. For this he will use all constitutional resources and rights that guarantee due process, which will allow him to prove that most signatures “do not reflect the will of the voters”, even by demonstrating that he is fulfilling his development plan, according to him.

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