More than a hundred people responded this Sunday in Miami, Florida (USA), to the call “America in Democracy”, to ask Colombians to vote en masse in the presidential elections on May 29 and that they do it for the former mayor of Medellín, Federico “Fico” Gutierrez.
Colombian-born businessman Fabio Andrade, one of the speakers at the event that brought together Colombians, Cubans and Nicaraguans from South Florida, asked Colombians living in Miami to go out and vote for “Fico,” the candidate of the right-wing coalition Team for Colombia.
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Various caravans that departed from distant places each other as Weston, northwest of Miami, and Kendall, southconverged this afternoon at the Cuban Memorial, an obelisk located near the Florida International University (FIU).
According to the announcement, the purpose was to ask Colombians to vote en masse in the presidential elections in order to prevent that their country become another Cuba, Nicaragua or Venezuela, according to the organizers.
“America en Democracia” had the support of exile leaders from these three countries who at a recent press conference stated that “If Colombia falls it will be a blow to the entire hemisphere”as Orlando Gutiérrez, of the Assembly of the Cuban Resistance, said.
Andrade, a community activist and aviation executive consultant, according to his Twitter profile, reminded Colombians in Miami that from May 23 to 29 they can vote at the Consulate General of Colombia, where 110,000 voters are registered, and he was sure that at least 100,000 “will vote well”.
Andrade, close to former president Álvaro Uribe, told Efe last Wednesday that his great fear is that there is “fraud” in these elections, because “the institutions are taken, all the money from drug trafficking is against Colombia staying in democracy. And let there be law and order.
According to Andrade, 7% of the votes cast in the legislative elections on March 13 were “fraudulent”For this reason, he stressed, it is so important that the vote and the count be “transparent.”
Some participants wore clothes alluding to Colombia, with the predominant colors blue and yellow, and carried banners and other elements such as hats to express their feelings for the coffee nation. In several t-shirts you could read the motto “I identify myself as president”.
According to the latest Yanhass survey conducted for RCN, Gustavo Petro leads his rival, Federico “Fico” Gutiérrez, who has 21% in voting intentions, with 40%.
In a second round that would be held on June 19, since according to those results no one would get 50% in the first round, Petro, who was mayor of Bogotá, would win the Presidency with 47% of the votes, while “Fico ” would get 34%.
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Recently, the former governor of the department of Antioquia, Luis Pérez, withdrew his candidacy for the presidential elections despite the fact that his chances were almost nil, and alluding that political polarization leaves no options for his central proposal.
