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Less than five days to go before Colombians go out to vote for their candidate for the Colombian presidency. From this Sunday’s result, if no one gets more than 50% of the votes, two candidates will go to the second round. For now, according to polls, those who are emerging to go to the second round are the candidate of the extreme left Gustavo Petro and the independent Federico Gutiérrez.
Today, a few days before the elections, we exclusively publish in El American an open letter that is endorsed by prominent freedom advocates from around the world. This afternoon, all readers of El American will be able to read the letter and see who signed it.
It is critical to understand the importance of these elections, not only for Colombians but for the entire continent. And, for the United States, in particular. The Americans cannot afford to lose Colombia to the extreme left, organized crime and drug trafficking. Let’s be clear: Gustavo Petro is the candidate supported by the terrorist groups FARC, ELN and communists from all over the world.
Until now, Colombia has been a key U.S. ally in Latin America. And Latin America is a key region of influence for the White House. It is unusual to dismiss this and not address the urgency of the moment. If the United States ignores Latin America, another Power, an enemy of the Americans, will move in with the intent to damage. The stakes today are very high. What will the world do if Colombia becomes another Venezuela? Will it stand idly by? Hopefully, it will not be seen.
Orlando Avendaño is the co-editor-in-chief of El American. He is a Venezuelan journalist and has studies in the History of Venezuela. He is the author of the book Days of submission // Orlando Avendaño es el co-editor en Jefe de El American. Es periodista venezolano y cuenta con estudios en Historia de Venezuela. Es autor del libro Días de sumisión.