Little or nothing is defined for the new Congress of the Republic (2022-2026), whose candidates will submit to the elections on March 13. However, among the candidates for the House of Representatives by the Atlantic there is one who would have his position assured.
(Also read: 18 polling stations in Barranquilla present electoral risk)
This is the head of the list of the Comunes party (former FARC), Germán Gómez, thanks to one of the agreements reached in the peace negotiations, which they finally signed with the Santos Government in 2016.
It must be remembered that a total of 10 seats were established in the Havana process, of which five are for the Senate and another five for the House of Representatives.
In the previous period, that Atlantic seat, the only one for the Caribbean region, was assigned to Seuxis Pausias Hernández, known during his militancy in the guerrilla with the alias of Jesus Santrich.
But it ended in an ’empty chair’ in the Chamber, due to the arrest of the sucreño for alleged cocaine trafficking, escape, joining the dissidents and subsequent death in the Serranía del Perijá.
From seven to eight: the department adds one seat
That seat could balance forces. For more than 15 years there has been no representation in the Atlantic by a left-wing party
In this electoral process, Comunes decided again to retake the seat for the Atlántico, so the department would go from seven to eight seats in the new period of the lower house of Congress.
This party presented a closed list headed by Gómez, who, regardless of the number of votes he obtains next Sunday, March 13, would have a seats directly product of the Agreement.
According to the political analyst, Alejandro Blanco, this seat has two special characteristics: the first is that it would change the balance by adding one more quota for the department, and the second is that this electoral exercise of the Commons is financed by the State.
“That seat could balance forces. For more than 15 years there has been no representation in the Atlantic by a left-wing party. This could change some dynamics between the representatives”, said the also professor at the Free University of Barranquilla.
He added that another element that would require one more seat is that it could open the debate on the building a culture of peace in the department, “under the understanding that the Atlantic for different reasons has been far from the dynamics of the implementation of the Agreement.”
The ex-combatant who is on the run through municipalities
One is the quality of public services, mobility in transport with the Transmetro crisis
The candidate Germán Gómez was born 58 years ago in Sincelejo, but since he was 8 years old he went to live in Barranquilla. In the 80s, being medical studentfrom the Metropolitan University, joined the Communist Youth, went to the UP, later joined the Farc, until laying down arms in 2016.
“It is an interesting situation that the citizens of the Atlantic can count on an alternative seat, that is, a spokesperson that will make visible all the problems and the possible solutions that they deserve, for the steps that we can make before the state organisms, in the process of to obtain resources for the development of this region”, said Gómez.
During this campaign, according to what he said, he has visited the municipalities of Santa Lucia, Repelon, SabanagrandeSabanalarga and the metropolitan area of Barranquilla, where he has identified five “among many” problems that must be addressed by Congress.
“There are a number of problems that overwhelm the Atlantic people, but we have detected five: one is the quality of public services, transport mobility with the Transmetro crisis and inter-municipal transport, the other issue is unemployment, hunger and lastly, insecurity”, he pointed out.
(You may be interested in: This is how the campaigns for peace seats in the Caribbean move)
Likewise, he lamented “the impasse with justice” of Jesús Santrich, for which the ’empty chair’ was decreed for this seat.
“The Atlantic could not enjoy the management in these four years of this seat. Today we are thinking that, although time does not recover, we have the mission of positioning ourselves as that alternative seat that the common people of the department can enjoy, with an agile, effective and committed management to manage to rescue the right that corresponds to the Atlantic”, closed the applicant.
Deivis Lopez Ortega
Correspondent of EL TIEMPO Barranquilla
On twitter: @dejholopez
Write me at deilop@eltiempo.com
More content from Colombia:
– Students protested on La Línea road due to lack of school transportation
– Martín Elías’s driver remembers the accident: “He told me to speed up”
– The sentence given to a man who killed his girlfriend at his 15-year party
