Íngrid Betancourt, the only woman in Colombia’s presidential race, announced this Friday that she will withdraw her candidacy to support that of engineer Rodolfo Hernández, a populist and independent who rose in the polls and has a chance of reaching the second round.
“Today I made the decision to support the only candidate who today can defeat the system “, said Betancourt, candidate of the Oxigênio Verde Party, who did not even reach 1% in the polls of voting intentions for the next day 20, in an act alongside Hernández in Barranquilla, in the north of the country.
“This is a difficult decision for me and my party because it means that we are going to step aside to support Rodolfo, to give him all our support this last week and then throughout the second round,” said Betancourt, who returned to the presidential race 20 years after her kidnapping by FARC guerrillas, when she was a candidate in the elections of 2002.
The policy added: “We have to free ourselves from a kidnapping much longer and much more horrendous than the one I lived through, free ourselves from the corrupt people who steal all our hopes every day and who have impoverished Colombia.”
Íngrid Betancourt and Rodolfo Hernández share a common discourse against corruption and looting, and against traditional politics and what the former senator calls “machinery”.
The leftist Gustavo Petro comes first in all polls, with about 40% of intentions of votes, while Hernández rose to third place and, with 20, 9%, according to the company Invamer, could surpass the second place, the rightist Federico “Fico” Gutiérrez, who appears with 27,1% in the search.
In fact, while a second round between Petro and “Fico” would give the former a wide win with 52,7% compared to 44, 2% that the former mayor of Medellín would obtain, if the dispute is between Petro and Hernández, the distance would decrease to a near draw at 50% and 40,4%, respectively .
