Although we will have to wait until the first quarter of 2023 to see the candidates for the Governor of Antioquia defined, the first countdown is already underway and the rattle of possibilities is stirring and there is something for all tastes.
The next October 29 is the deadline for those who are currently public employees, political, civil, administrative or military jurisdiction or authority, or public employees who intervene as spending managers to execute investment resources or enter into contracts to resign from their positions; they must do so if they want to aspire, to avoid future disabilities.
That is the dilemma of Luis Fernando Suárez, Beings of Human Security and Government of Antioquia, who for many is the call to succeed Governor Aníbal Gaviria and give continuity to his political project. Suárez has less than 20 days to decide whether to resign from his current position and, even so, his candidacy is not certain, since an analysis time will follow to define if it will be him or if consensus is reached around another person who represents the same ideals .
In that deck of possibilities is the former congressman and former director of the Metropolitan Area, Eugenio Prieto, who is a political ally of Suárez and Gaviria and was as governor in charge when in 2002 they kidnapped and later assassinated the then departmental president Guillermo Gaviria, brother of Aníbal.
Prieto, who is in an academic research project on sustainability, awaits the decision he makes with his political group to know which name they put on the ballot in October 2023.
They are not the only ones talking about it. Although there are still 12 months ahead to meet the governor for the 2024-2027 period, the convulsed local political situation, especially around the Medellín Mayor’s Office, has more than one with the certainty that solid alliances and common objectives are required that avoid divisions.
Even more so, when many of those who contemplate the idea of aspiring agree that Mayor Daniel Quintero has generated polarization and an institutional crisis that they believe could be transferred to the department given the strategy he plans for 2023.
It is known that a new disbandment is expected in his cabinet because he asked all of them to resign formally to “design the team that will close the administration with a flourish” and another that, in 2023, “will defeat Uribismo.”
other possibilities
The rumor has become solid that the Quinterist bet for the governorship will be Esteban Restrepo, his former Secretary of Government, who resigned to campaign for Gustavo Petro and now presents himself as a community leader. The task could include the former councilor of the Democratic Center, Albert Corredor, also a friend and political ally of Quintero, as a formula for the Medellín Mayor’s Office.
And this strategy that the mayor plans weighs to define candidacies. It is known, for example, that former conservative congressman Juan Diego Gómez, who was president of the Senate until last July, is analyzing whether to launch himself or establish alliances, even with consultations, to decide on a candidate.
In this search, Gómez would not go with the Conservative and in the future he would seriously think about it because he differs from the position that the party has taken with the National Government and considers that it has been very permissive with Quintero.
Another political spectrum that has serious differences with the local president is that of the Dignity movement, which will put on the table the name of the former deputy from Antioquia and former congressman Jorge Gómez, who works in key with the current deputy Luis Eduardo Peláez, opponent of the Quintero administration .
However, they will look for the people who made up the Coalition of Hope in the last legislative elections so that they join the possibility of a consensus that will allow them to define a joint and solid candidacy.
On the other hand, uribismo militants study the political strategy in the face of the dispute for the Governorship and take into account the political situation in Medellin, since they consider that the city is mired in a crisis. Even without any definition, there are several names under consideration with the premise of building a candidacy without internal divisions. Some sources have told that, even, they would contemplate a consensus around the eventual candidacy of Luis Fernando Suárez.
Several sectors have asked the senator of the Democratic Center (CD), Paola Holguín, leader of the group known as Los Paolos, to launch herself and although she has not expressed an interest in accepting, she has not completely ruled out the possibility either. .
In this deck the former mayor of Rionegro, Andrés Julián Rendón, continues to play, who has the firm intention of launching himself, but is open to the decisions of the party and has in mind the possibility of a great coalition.
In addition, Santiago Valencia, former senator of the CD and who participates in the regional workshops that the party does in the different departments, does not completely eliminate the possibility of appearing on the ballot either, although he is awaiting a determination in which they will have taking into account academic, business and social sectors of Antioquia.
Precisely, those agreements will determine the future of another of those who sounds more strongly: the opposition councilman Alfredo Ramos, who today is thinking between a candidacy for Mayor or one for Governor. In this task, Ramos would also seek to consolidate agreements around the Assembly, the councils and the different municipal mayor’s offices. And he sees a viable option in the closed lists.
For his part, Mauricio Tobón, former manager of the Idea in the past Luis Pérez Governorate, is studying whether it will be launched or not, a decision that he will announce at the beginning of next year; while Ana Ligia Mora, current director of Corantioquia, began to sound and has the same days as Seres Suárez to decide if she leaves her position and gambles for a candidacy. She does not have it easy, because she wants to finish the management of the entity that she leads today.
It is still early, but the engines are already heating up for what is expected to be a tough campaign that will not escape the political novels that have been woven in this four-year period.