BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — The daddy of Miguel Uribe, the Colombian presidential candidate fatally shot at a political rally earlier this 12 months, launched a presidential marketing campaign Tuesday in what he known as an effort preserve his son’s legacy alive and construct a safer and extra affluent Colombia.
Miguel Uribe Londoño, 72, introduced his candidacy with a speech exterior the congressional constructing within the capital the place his son turned a widely known senator, and spoke behind a podium fitted with the marketing campaign brand utilized by his deceased son.
“Collectively we are able to construct a safe Colombia the place folks is not going to concern going out into the streets, and the place enterprise homeowners is not going to must make extortion funds” to gangs, Uribe Londoño mentioned in Bogota. “A democratic Colombia, the place the federal government doesn’t foment divisions between the wealthy and the poor, whites or Blacks, or those that are on the left or on the proper.”
Uribe Londoño was a member of Bogota’s metropolis council within the late 80s and a senator for Colombia’s Conservative Social gathering within the early 90s. However he had no plans to run for the presidency earlier than his son’s demise, and was not extensively recognized by the general public.
He gained new prominence throughout his son’s nationally televised funeral, when he delivered a speech decrying what he known as the nation’s descent into “insanity” underneath the administration of left-wing President Gustavo Petro and urging Colombians to vote in subsequent 12 months’s elections.
Uribe Londoño is one among 5 candidates which are operating for the Democratic Heart, the conservative social gathering that Miguel Uribe belonged to. The social gathering has mentioned that later this 12 months, it would use opinion polls to determine on its remaining candidate.
Sergio Guzman, a political analyst in Bogota, mentioned that Uribe Londoño’s determination to enter the presidential race “reinvigorates” the Democratic Heart, which has struggled to discover a common candidate whereas its chief, former President Alvaro Uribe, fights corruption allegations in Colombian courts. The previous president isn’t any relation to Uribe Londoño
Guzman mentioned that Uribe Londoño, whose spouse was murdered within the Nineties, “symbolizes the ache of many victims, particularly those that are conservatives.”
Uribe Londoño’s entry into the presidential race comes as Colombia faces a brand new wave of violence, brought about largely by insurgent teams and drug gangs which are attempting to take over territory deserted by the FARC, the guerrilla military that made peace with the federal government in 2016.
Final week, seven folks had been killed as a FARC hold-out group set off a automobile bomb exterior a army base in Colombia’s third largest metropolis. Whereas within the province of Antioquia, rebels took down a helicopter that was conducting anti-narcotics operations, killing 13 law enforcement officials.
Petro has tried to dealer peace offers with the nation’s remaining insurgent teams, and granted a lot of them ceasefires in an effort to spice up negotiations. However these peace talks have yielded few outcomes, and critics of the president say they’ve helped the insurgent teams to turn into stronger.
“I’m not the one father who has misplaced that which he cherished probably the most” Uribe Londoño mentioned on Tuesday. “However I wish to be voice of the newest father, who has needed to settle for the merciless future that they wish to impose on us with violence and terror.”
