This Sunday, Medellín lacked the incentive to surprise. Everything was already written before the election, even if it is politically incorrect to say so. Although the only survey is that of citizens with their voice, all previous surveys had already anticipated what would happen. Federico Gutiérrez, Fico on the ballot and in life, received 73% of the vote with 84% counted and will be the next mayor of Colombia’s second largest city, which he already led between 2016 and 2019. It is the conservative politician’s return home after his failed presidential adventure in 2022, in which he failed to even advance to the second round despite the full support of the Colombian establishment. As if it were the prodigal son, Gutiérrez promises citizens to take back Medellín from “the corrupt people who stole it.”
There’s something attractive about that skinny, smiling guy with messy hair who hugs everyone he meets. Fico least resembles a stick politician, one of those who gets stiff in the presence of people without knowing what to do with their hands or their mouth. Nor is he an intellectual politician, one of those who quote philosophers and writers and whom ordinary mortals do not understand at all. He is not even a political politician, but one of those who thrives in front of the microphone and plays with words.
Fico plays the cool politician, likeable and good-natured, and in a way he succeeds. He presents himself as such a normal man that it sometimes seems as if he only got into politics by chance. But it is nothing more than a passing impression. Behind this self-assured aura you can see the enormous self-confidence of someone who has spent more than two decades knowing the power in Medellín, the birthplace of the once all-powerful Álvaro Uribe, in every detail, and who has managed to come under his rule to issue candidacy for the presidency of all the leaders of the right and traditional politics of the country. It is clear that he is not naive.
He wears jeans and sneakers as his official uniform, and his tone becomes harder when he talks about Medellín, which he considers the victim of a scandal that “all of Colombia and the whole world should know about.” For years, Antioquia was the fiefdom of the right, a rich region where powerful families and landowners shared power and wealth for decades. Gutiérrez is not one of them, but his personality has grown politically through his hand. The greatest support for the conservative Álvaro Uribe, who enjoys little popularity and has almost disappeared from the current scene, comes from this area of the country. It was the only region where Fico won in the first round of the May 2022 presidential election – besides the foreign vote. In Medellín he already received an astonishing 53.57% of the vote.
Four years ago, the city’s political history took a turn. An unknown Daniel Quintero took over as mayor of Uribism after submitting himself for signature. Away from traditional parties and politicians, the young candidate managed to build on the growing unrest among citizens. But his independent brand lost luster over the months as he turned to the usual politicians and strongly supported Petro during the election campaign, causing the city’s left to split and earning him some antipathy. His mandate ended with several corruption complaints and a disapproval vote of more than 60%. A few weeks ago he resigned from office as the first popularly elected mayor of Medellín. Even then, all the polls showed that Fico was knocking on the door. His victory this Sunday puts the city back in the conservative hands it has always been in.
However, Gutiérrez denies being himself. He does not profess to be left or right, but to an ideology he calls “common sense.” With his own new party called Creo, he does not feel part of Uribismo – he remembers defeating Uribe’s candidate when he won the mayor’s office in 2016 – but Uribismo did not field a candidate in the presidential election or now to give him support for him. When Fico first unsuccessfully ran for mayor in 2011, he appeared on billboards hugging Uribe, whom he promised to appoint as senior security adviser.
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Security has always been a focus of his management, as mayor he behaved almost like a sheriff, teaming up with police operations on the streets to arrest criminals. The memory that he uses most from that time, with this spectacular epic, is that he himself went from house to house with a megaphone, looking for young people who had dropped out of school. “8,200 children went back to school,” he says.
Over the years, former President Uribe’s support decreased rather than increased. During the presidential campaign, Gutiérrez tried to formally distance himself from him, avoiding his name but not the content, since the former president himself named him his candidate. Politically, this classified him as the right-wing candidate and prevented him from winning votes in the political center, which saw Petro as a step into the void but was much more opposed to the former president’s shadow. The right was stifled by this defeat, which forced it to place itself in the hands of the unclassifiable and disoriented Rodolfo Hernández, who also failed to defeat Petro in the second round.
The elected mayor, a deeply religious man, married and the father of two minor children, is now trying to make up for this complete electoral disaster with this overwhelming victory. But he doesn’t forget the president either. In the midst of an opposition without a clear leader, Gutiérrez stood out for his constant criticism, which he can now voice over the loudspeaker in the country’s second largest city. A sheriff who once hunted criminals, he now promises to hunt down a different kind of “criminals,” as he calls Quintero and his team, in Medellín. “A corrupt politician is more dangerous than the head of a criminal structure,” he said a few days ago in an interview with EL PAÍS. He assures that he will first order a forensic audit in order to forward all the information found by the administration to the control authorities. Strange as it may seem in a country where the shadow of corruption reaches almost everyone, there are no known complaints against it.
Fico promises to spend the next four years in Medellín, but doesn’t rule out anything for the future. “If one day I have the opportunity to become president, it will be a matter of God and the people.” As we wait on God, the test of man begins today.
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