Bogota.- A Colombian judge ordered far-right candidate Abelardo de la Espriella this Tuesday to retract and apologize, within 48 hours, to journalist Laura Rodriguez, to whom he made sexual comments and insinuations regarding her genitals during an interview.
The first-instance guardianship ruling orders De la Espriella, who was the most voted candidate last Sunday in the first presidential round, with 10.3 million votes (43.74%), to publish a statement addressed to the journalist “in which he retracts and apologizes for the expressions made on the program ‘Piso 8′”.
“And in the same statement, expressly recognize the importance of women’s participation in the democratic and electoral process, acknowledging that their criteria for voting are based on their intelligence, discernment, and opinion,” the ruling specifies.
The analyzed facts
On May 11, in an interview on the independent radio program ‘Piso 8’, the politician showed a photograph of himself on a cell phone and, amidst laughter, made sexist references related to the size of his penis: “I have earned a very cool (good) vote from the female electorate,” he said.
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On the program, which is broadcast on video through digital platforms, the candidate asked Rodriguez, the only woman participating in the interview alongside three other journalists, to zoom in on the image of his pants area: “What do you see here, honey? Come on, bring it closer, zoom in on it.”
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According to the judicial decision, the candidate’s apology, who will face leftist Iván Cepeda in the June 21 runoff, who obtained 9.6 million votes (40.90%), must be disseminated through the same digital communication channels he uses, guaranteeing visibility reasonably equivalent to that which the controversial statements had.
De la Espriella had already apologized for this episode in a message posted on the social network X on May 13, in which he assured that he did not act “in bad faith” nor with the intention of offending the journalist, although he acknowledged that if a woman feels uncomfortable “a gentleman has the moral obligation to offer an apology”.
