In an interview with El Heraldo, the main newspaper of the Colombian Caribbean, the far-right presidential candidate Abelardo de la Espriella has stated that, faced with the scenario of losing the elections against Senator Iván Cepeda, he would stay in the country as head of the opposition to the leftist government, which he already calls a “regime.” “I would die for this country,” added the criminal lawyer. The Constitution establishes that whoever comes in second place is guaranteed a seat in the Senate.
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Erika Fontalvo, the director of the media outlet that a week ago expressed its open support for the far-right candidate, asked him about the statements his wife, Ana Lucía Pineda, gave to the magazine Semana. “We have two paths: win or lose. If we lose, nothing happens, because we already have a settled life, we live wonderfully, we work together, our children, we are in another country; if we want, we go to Colombia, if not, we don’t,” said Pineda in a video interview, from which that part went viral.
Those statements, in a relaxed interview setting, caused outrage among some and fueled a criticism that right-wing senator Paloma Valencia, the far-right candidate’s rival in the run-off, has hammered in recent days: the lifestyle and political trajectory of De la Espriella. Those phrases not only touched a nerve in a society where not everyone has the same privileges or the possibility to migrate, but also because they contradicted the patriotic narrative of his campaign, guided by the slogan “Firmes por la patria” (Firm for the homeland).
“My wife didn’t say that,” De la Espriella defended himself in El Heraldo. He explained that when he told her about his plans to be president, a year and a half ago, she responded: “If it doesn’t work out, then we go back,” referring to the United States, the country where they reside and which has granted them nationality. However, the criminal lawyer explained that this was a very different scenario from the current one, since back then it was not clear how far he could go. But today, when he is one of the favorites in the polls and has the “popular fervor,” he says he would not leave the country. He even went further: “I am going to die for Colombia, let there be no doubt about that.”
De la Espriella suggests that if he loses to the left – although “I am sure that won’t happen,” he says – he would go to Congress to “face that plague.” Although the far-right candidate has been questioned for changing his mind, going from defending same-sex marriage to speaking against diverse sexual orientations, or having said he was an atheist only to later declare himself a believer, he has clarified that he keeps his word. As proof of this, he recalls an interview he gave years ago, in which he said he would only run for the Presidency if his country was at risk of losing democracy. “And I fulfilled it seven years later,” he maintains.
