Scandal-ridden political party PIN (Partido de Integracion Nacional) announced on Wednesday that it plans to become more visible in the second round of Colombia’s presidential elections and support a candidate, reports Semana.
Having been dormant in the lead-up to the first round of elections, the PIN, which has been heavily criticized for its ties to paramilitaries, announced that it will offer its support in the June 20 run-off between Partido de la U’s Juan Manuel Santos and Green Party’s Antanas Mockus to the candidate who has “a vision of democratic security” aligned with PIN’s.
According to party president Samuel Arrieta, it “would be impossible… to ignore” the whopping one million votes that the party received in the March congressional elections.
Due to the controversy surrounding the party, which was created not long before the March 14 election from the ashes of several political parties that fell apart after their members were imprisoned for paramilitary links, both Santos and Mockus have rejected PIN’s support.
Arrieta also responded to accusations by former presidential candidate Gustavo Petro that the PIN made a “secret pact” with Santos during the election, saying that the only “mafia pact” made in Colombia was the pact “between Pablo Escobar and M-19 guerillas to assault the Palace of Justice in 1985.” Petro was a member of M-19 until the group was demobilized.