The president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, described the disqualification of María Corina Machado as an “anti-democratic coup” and defended that the objective of democracy is to “maintain the political rights of all citizens” regardless of their ideology.
«The right to choose is not only individual. It belongs to society and today this discussion (is evident) very well in the events of Venezuela to Mrs. María Corina (Machado) and others previously: they were disqualified from participating in electoral campaigns by administrative authorities,” Petro stated in a event at the Casa de Nariño.
At the inauguration of State Counselor Gloria María Gómez Montoya, the president also made a call to defend political rights and guarantee them regardless of ideology in Latin America and assured that “ending the American Convention on Human Rights takes us to all of America Latin to barbarism.
«What is in the background is the need to preserve the political right to choose, to be elected, to participate on equal terms with the State, which is not only an individual political right, it is not only the individual Petro or another individual. anyone, but it is a right of fundamental society,” insisted the Colombian head of state.
Machado, disqualified from holding elected office until 2036, gave up her presidential candidacy in the elections on July 28 to the historian Corina Yoris, who also could not be registered by the Democratic Unitary Platform (PUD).
Faced with this, Petro indicated that “the democratic point is to maintain the political rights of all citizens, regardless of whether their ways of thinking or believing always change over time.”
«The same thing happens here (in Colombia) as a kind of double standard; We attack what they do there (in Venezuela) because it is undoubtedly an anti-democratic coup, but we hide that the same thing is done here, that the fundamental political right in Colombia is also violated and not only for the individual, but for society itself. Although in Venezuela, lately, they covered up the circumstances with a court ruling,” said Petro.
The Colombian president was suspended and politically disqualified in 2013, when he was mayor of Bogotá, due to an administrative decision of the Attorney General’s Office (Public Ministry), but in March 2014 the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) requested the adoption of precautionary measures in his favor and he was restored to office.
The president also made reference to another Venezuelan opposition leader, Leopoldo López, exiled in Spain, and compared that situation with his own.
«Leopoldo López was disqualified in Venezuela. Exactly the same thing that they wanted to disqualify me here,” he emphasized.
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2024-10-04 07:05:56
