Abelardo de la Espriella’s voters believe in miracles. Or rather, they believe in the “miracle homeland” promised by the Colombian far-right presidential candidate, second in the polls for the first round on May 31. The appeal largely comes from his security discourse, they explain, in which the miracle includes overcoming the public order crisis in his first 90 days of government. The support also does not come from doing politics, but from the private sector, from being one of “those who have never lived off the State’s teat,” says one of his youth coordinators in Bogotá, Andrés Rojas. And he adds that he is a religious man “who promotes the family,” says one of his followers, 19 years old, who will vote for the Presidency for the first time.
“Four years ago I voted for the current president, Gustavo Petro,” explains Luisa Fernanda, a resident in the south of Bogotá, before seeing the candidate on stage. But corruption, she explains, made her move to the other ideological corner. “We believed in change, and there was no change,” she states. That miracle of change she now seeks elsewhere.
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