The daughters of three politicians hit the headlines in Colombia this week as two girls urged their father not to aspire Congress because “they’re all corrupt and end up in prison,” while the daughters of two jailed politicians seek to continue their fathers’ political career.
Case 1: Maria Fernanda and Manuela
Maria Fernanda and Manuela Gomez, the daughters of Medellin politician Alejandro Gomez, made headlines after web portal Kien Y Ke published an interview with them about a video they had uploaded to their father’s YouTube. In the video, the girls beg people for help in efforts to convince their dad not to run for office.
“Recently he got it into his head to leave everything behind and run for Congress. We don’t know what to do, how do we change his mind?” the two girls asked viewers.
According to the girls, “politics in this country is an embarrassment. They’re all corrupt and end up in prison” which is why they need public support to deter their father from aspiring public office.
The girls ended up uploading their home video to their father’s YouTube account, embarrassing the aspiring congressmen — “because we didn’t have an account with YouTube,” Manuela told Kien Y Ke.
After the recording and uploading of the video, Gomez talked to his daughters and knew to convince them that running for Congress wasn’t going to corrupt him.
Case 2: Luz Estella and Nadia
The two daughters of former congressmen Jacier Caceres and Vicente Biel, in prison over their dealing with drug trafficking paramilitary groups, showed to have an entirely different idea of politics.
In spite their fathers’ disgrace, the two daughters are seeking support of political parties to continue their dads’ career in Congress.
After having been rejected by the Radical Change party, the Conservative Party seemed to not object to the women’s murky family dealings with criminals and agreed to include them on the list of candidates of the March congressional elections.
Conservative Party chairman Omar Yepes explained weekly Semana that criminal activity is not hereditary and that the women can not be held accountable for the crimes of their fathers.