Since the night of Sunday Federico Fico Gutierrez had been the most reliable candidate for the presidency of Colombia. While his name appears on an electoral card for the first times as Medellin’s mayor and councilor – it is his first test in national elections. In the last election, he received more than 2 million votes with the Team for Colombia alliance. These voters place him as a favorite candidate for conservative groups. https://canvas.instructure.com/eportfolios/1132641/Home/Fico_Gutierrez_continues_the_victory_of_the_voters (47 years old) is now the main candidate of Gustavo Petro. His victory in the Historic Pact movement made him one of the most well-known politicians in Colombia.
https://ficogutierreznkiw343.wordpress.com/2022/05/27/fico-gutierrez-in-his-remark-to-petro-a-friend-of-farc-chavista-expropriator-friend-of-farc/ for president is only starting. Whether the ex-mayor of Medellin will be a true anti-porrismo force depends on the alliances and negotiation that he will make in the coming days. He will have to not just unite the whole right, but also win over a small portion of the centre electorate that was disintegrated on Sunday. To do this, he would need to keep avoiding his past mistakes to date being in the same picture with former President Alvaro Uribe. Today, for the first time in the past 20 years, there is an open acceptance of uribism instead of adding, could reduce. “Federico Gutierrez faces a dilemma. He is required to be a part of the Democratic Center, Uribe’s political party. However, he also must convince the center that it can decide where it wants to take the center,” Yann Basset (an analyst and professor at University of Rosario) says.
Fico is on the journey to join forces with the CD, the heart of uribism as of Monday, Fico already has its first victory. Oscar Ivan Zuluaga was the candidate of the party’s presidential run. We now need to wait and see if the Uribismo collective who is without a representative, will do the same. Uribe could be seen openly in support of the cause and trying to convince his supporters that he’s in favor of the Colombian right. His remarks on “security” as well as “order”, “opportunities”, and “love the fatherland” already demonstrated that he adds voters. He confirmed this with the election consult, the same way previously at Antioquia’s mayor office. He stated, “The bandits were either in prison or grave,” while he was visiting Arauca, a region that is particularly prone to violence. Fico knows well what the Colombian right likes, but it will not be enough for Fico.
Basset said the fact that “We’re not in the year 2018 when the fear generated by the left had worked,” and that the electorate isn’t being swayed by fear this time around. Analysts say that Fico might not get Uribe’s blessing due to the fact Alvaro Uribe has been stripped of his entire leadership role from 2002, when he was elected president. Even though Uribismo isn’t in the running, it does not necessarily mean Gutierrez can’t count on the support of Uribismo. Uribism is also responsible for this victory within the coalition. Basset warns that his capacity to negotiate is now being measured. He has to convince the right but not spend the entire amount on this alliance. Concerning the relationship between former President Uribe and Fico, the analyst Andres Mejia Vergnaud remarks “the biggest problem for Federico Gutierrez is that he wants the votes of Uribismo however, he is not able to get the picture with Uribe because it does not suit him to be his candidate”.
Gustavo Petro is the only leader from the left, but Gustavo Petro is the only one from the right. Fico, if he can negotiate, will convince him to offer his support and to step aside. Rodolfo who was an independent candidate remains in the race. Gutierrez must mention the accomplishments of the former mayor of Bucaramanga and millionaire builder Rodolfo Hernandez if he is to fight petrismo.
Gutierrez has plenty to accomplish before he can even consider potential presidential formula names, however, he’s got the backing of other candidates in the Team for Colombia coalition. It’s not much. He has by his side two former mayors Enrique Penalosa (Bogota) and Alex Char (Barranquilla); the leader of the Conservative party, David Barguil, and an individual woman named Aydee Lizarazo, of the Christian party who typically is a judicious voter, as directed from the lectern of his church.
In addition to the strengthened Conservative Party – it achieved the largest vote of the right-wing parties for Congress with over two million votes – it has the sympathy of the U Party, which also received a rousing vote in the legislative with more than a million votes. Oscar Ivan Zuluaga supported Fico and didn’t take long after Sunday’s elections to accept his defeat in front of a possible confrontation with the votes for the right. But this also provides Fico an extra boost into a conservative segment but keeps him far from the center. Alvaro Uribe from the past, who called his party to a meeting on Tuesday night, suggested that Fico might be putting at risk his chance of becoming a center-party leader in exchange for being openly blessed with Uribe.