Colombia’s Conservative Party elected senior politician Omar Yepes as their political movement’s leader on Wednesday.
The new president for the Conservative Party has over 30 years-experience in Congress.
Yepes will lead the Conservative Party, currently the second largest political force in congress and part of President Juan Manuel Santos’ coalition, to the 2014 elections.
“My primary objective is to strengthen and fight for the Conservative party,” Yepes was quoted as saying in newspaper El Tiempo. The newly elected president stated that his aspiration for the Conservative Party was to be autonomous and independent – rather a locomotive that a passenger car.
To stress this, the former senator said he wants to be called neither a “Uribista,” a loyalist of former President Alvaro Uribe, nor “Santista” but a conservative.
“We have agreed with President Santos and on some positions of ex-president Uribe, but we are driving our policy autonomously to become an alternative power,” Yepes was quoted as saying by newspaper El Colombiano.
Beatriz Helena Jaramillo was elected as vice-president for the Conservative Party in Wednesday’s elections.
The Conservative Party is one of Colombia’s two main traditional political powerhouses.
Sources
- El exsenador Ómar Yepes, nuevo presidente del Partido Conservador (El Tiempo)
- Exsenador Ómar Yepes, nuevo presidente del Partido Conservador (El Colombiano)
- El exsenador Ómar Yepes es el nuevo presidente del Partido Conservador (W Radio)
- Omar Yepes Alzate, nuevo director del Partido Conservador (Caracol Radio)