Presidential candidate Leonardo Huerta reported having received calls from companies that demanded $1.6 billion for the collection of signatures necessary to register his candidacy, a sum that, according to his statements, is out of reach of any citizen without support from large structures.
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The candidate said that he faced the process with his own resources, especially after rejecting business offers. that, in exchange for the logistics of the firms, posed costs that he describes as exorbitant.
According to his calculations, he ended up investing nearly 200 million pesos, depleting his savings and leaving his bank cards empty.
“Companies called me to charge me 1,600 million pesos for signatures. But where was he going to get 1.6 billion pesos to finance that. I spent more or less 200 million pesos on the collection,” Huerta stated in an interview with Change.
The financial wear and tear and the methods adopted to collect signatures became an example of the type of demands imposed by the Colombian electoral system.
Huerta managed to gather 1.3 million signatures with teams of young volunteers deployed throughout the country, in a dynamic radically different from that of other pre-candidates who, according to him, chose to subcontract companies that delivered “perfect, wrinkle-free, with QR codes and verified” forms, in contrast to his own, with stains, different sizes and traces of the elements.
Looking ahead to the interparty consultation scheduled for March 8, in which 16 candidates will participate, including former ministers and former mayors, the university professor highlighted his central difference: he is the only candidate without high-ranking political experience. This, in his own words, makes it “the only new photo” on the card, in a scenario generally dominated by the prominence of well-known figures.
The candidate placed emphasis on the distinctive character of his application. He highlighted his career as a lawyer, philosopher with five specializations, two master’s degrees and a doctorate, as well as his experience as a teacher in more than twenty universities and in leading government areas such as the Secretariat of Education of Pereira and positions in the Government of Risaralda, the National Television Authority, the Defense sector and the Superintendency of Surveillance and Private Security.
The turning point, as he said, came when he chose not to depend on endorsements or alternative positions, dedicating all his personal resources to the campaign. He stressed to the media that a good part of the support achieved came from young collaborators, ensuring that collecting signatures was a collective task.
When comparing his approach with that of Claudia López, with whom he will compete in the consultation, Huerta explained: “Claudia has a vision more focused on large cities and metropolitan areas. I complement that with a territorial view. I propose municipal police not only in large cities, but also in small municipalities”. This emphasis on the autonomy and strengthening of municipalities supports his proposal for a federal Colombia.
Huerta recounted his first meeting with López while both were collecting signatures in downtown Bogotá, describing how a coincidence in a shopping center led to subsequent meetings and the construction of a consultation center. Initially, they invited other figures such as Sergio Fajardo and Maurice Armitage, although none joined the competition.
Regarding the meaning of competition, Huerta specified that his campaign vision lies more in complementarity than in direct antagonism between the sector’s proposals: “Differences should not divide us, but rather complement us. Colombia needs to unite visions, not deepen antagonisms”. He even pointed out a virtue in the former mayor: “her firmness in carrying out her decisions,” as well as the fight against corruption during her administration as head of Bogotá.
Analyzing his chances of advancing to the first round, the university professor recognized that participating directly in that phase gave him “less than one percent chance of winning it”a percentage that, in his opinion, increases in the consultation scheme. Their commitment is aimed at capturing the vote of moderate sectors that do not find clear representation at the extremes of the political spectrum.
In the programmatic field, Huerta maintained the importance of a profound reform of the health system, warning that “it should not be ideologized” and that the design should start from the technical and scientific agreement between the actors in the sector.
He also proposed a reform of justice that privileges efficiency and the protection of citizen rights, suggesting the inclusion of additional preliminary hearings for cases involving minors.
The transparency in the goals of his campaign also distanced himself from speculation about a possible interest in other public positions. He stated: “I want to build a centrist, social democratic movement. I believe that the majority of Colombians are not extreme. I do not see the left and the right as irreconcilable enemies”.
The consultation on March 8 will be the definitive instance in which Leonardo Huerta will try to validate both his commitment to federalize Colombia and his commitment to a policy of consensus. It will do so in a context where campaign financing and signature gathering continue to be structural challenges for those who lack the support of large party machines.
