At least four women denounced a “systematic structure of sexual harassment and violence” that supports one of the leftist candidates in Colombia’s presidential race, Carlos Caicedo, according to radio station La FM.
According to the radio station, Caicedo and some of his closest aides habitually harassed women when the presidential candidate was the governor of the Caribbean Magdalena province between 2020 and 2023.
La FM obtained screenshots of a WhatApp conversation between Caicedo and one of the alleged victims in which the presidential candidate invited the told the woman that “with me you climb the ladder quickly if you please me.”
“Come, come up to my room,” Caicedo allegedly told his victim while both were staying in a hotel.
The woman who provided the evidence told the radio station that her colleagues received similar invitations.
It was a difficult, complex moment, because the only way to climb within the movement and to climb in terms of work was to agree to the demands he made of us at the time. At meetings held in very prestigious hotels in the city, he would point out which room he was in and ask us to come up. In my case, he asked me to come up to his room, saying that this would allow me to climb the ladder much faster within the government or the organization, to better positions, if I agreed to be alone with him.
Anonymous victim
Another alleged victim told the radio station that she was drugged and sexually abused by one Caicedo’s aides. This incident is being investigated by the Prosecutor General’s Office, according to the alleged victim.
A third alleged victim said that one of the presidential candidate’s advisers harassed and touched her without her consent.
He would come up to me while I was working on the computer, brush his member against my arms, sometimes touch my legs without my consent, and many of my coworkers witnessed everything that happened. None of them wanted to speak up.
Anonymous witness
One of the witnesses said that she reported the sexual harassment to the secretaries of Women’s Issues and Equality, but without any consequence.
In a response, Caicedo said that “it is no coincidence that, right after our signatures were approved, our opponents reactivated familiar strategies to try to distract and destabilize the campaign.”
“We have learned over time that we should not fall for these provocations or play their game,” said the presidential candidate.
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