Gustavo Petro this Thursday accepted all the Leonian conditions imposed by Rodolfo Hernández for a debate: that it be held in Bucaramanga, his city, that it be moderated by journalists who, according to him, are related to his campaign and most of the issues What is being discussed is not the government program of the two, but controversies in connection with the candidacy of the left-wing politician. Hernández’s proposal, through a statement ignoring all basic rules of civility, seemed impossible to accept three days before the election, where a scenario of neutrality should prevail, but Petro has undoubtedly lifted the gauntlet. “You can make whatever terms you want, I have no problem. I am willing to go to Bucaramanga wherever he wants,” he replied.
However, the debate continues up in the air due to the deadlines by which it should be met: today. A court on Wednesday asked the two candidates to come to an agreement within 48 hours and stick to it. The Petro team gave their approval to the public media system RTVC, which was responsible for organizing the event. Hernández, on the other hand, asked for a clarification of the verdict in order to delay the verdict that forced him to debate it and thus allow time to pass. That was how matters seemed to die, as the former mayor of Bucaramanga released an encouraged statement: “I am also ready, as I have been for 50 years when I chose to build houses, create jobs, pay taxes and not live like a professional bureaucrat”.
I accept that the debate ordered by the judiciary will be held.
The debate must be conducted unconditionally with the press asking what they want.
— Gustavo Petro (@petrogustavo) June 16, 2022
The document states that the court ruling was sponsored by “you and your partners” and relates to Petro. In one of his usual outbursts, which have surfaced these weeks, Hernández said he wiped his butt with the law. Finally, ask for speed to be able to debate in the following 12 hours. “As if a debate could erase our past and the RODOLFISTAS DE CORAZÓN or campaigners who were 8 million four years ago and were now 8.5 million (the number of Petro voters) would change their minds, so it is in the idolized and mythologized debate is said or not said,” he writes.
Petro later returned to show by letter his full willingness to meet face-to-face with Hernández. He believes that his experience as a parliamentarian and the dozens of debates he has attended prepared him for this final moment. It’s his now or never as a presidential candidate. “I’m glad you agreed to a debate. You didn’t want to, they forced you,” he emphasizes. He continues: “However, I am not making this debate conditional. none. I leave all the details of the debate to the RTVC Public Media System: from the moderators to the topics, including of course those you raised”. Despite his “provocative letter,” he replies, “You say you accept the debate. Is not true. You mock the debate, the judiciary, the media and the Colombians by wanting to impose conditions. Doesn’t matter. His disdain for even the slightest democratic norm is total and revealing. His contempt for the millions of Colombians who have the right to contrast our programs and solutions is very telling. We’ll see each other in Bucaramanga, of course.”
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