Controversial Venezuelan spin doctor JJ Rendon said he regrets not smearing opposition candidates in his role as political strategist for defeated Bogota mayor candidate Enrique Peñalosa.
In an interview with Caracol Radio, Rendon, who is infamous for his dirty tricks campaigning, said Peñalosa rejected plans to discredit his opponents.
He said, “[Peñalosa] has the strange idea in his head [that] political campaigns are ugly and he wants to remove himself from these dirty things.”
He added, “I regret it. I would have liked to do a super negative campaign, but I couldn’t.”
According to Rendon, the alliance between the U Party, who he is contracted with, and the centrist Green Party, “limited” him in his campaigning and this may have cost Peñalosa the election.
He said “we paid a high price for the experiment of not running a negative campaign.”
Rendon also offered a scathing assessment of the mayor-elect, Gustavo Petro.
Labeling Petro a “populist,” he compared him to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, saying “Petro is not necessarily Chavez but he smells of Chavez.”
He said, “this progressive thing is a disguise … they [Petro and his allies] understand that they can’t directly use words like revolution, so they put make up on it.”
According to Rendon, Petro defeated his rivals by making emotive appeals to voters, while Peñalosa and third placed Gina Parody came across as technocrats.