Vicky Dávila, former editor of the magazine Week and Colombian presidential candidate, begins to see an electoral prophecy come true. When he announced his candidacy in November 2024, several analysts believed that the premature announcement was a way to scuttle him. A harakiri political. They said it was an overconfidence in the ability to maintain electoral excitement for a year and a half, without experience in winning votes or in public office, such as a stranger. But the race was still raw, and Dávila came out on top in the polls above other right-wing candidates and Sergio Fajardo, who leads in the political center. She trusted her luck, resigned from the editorship of the magazine and seemed to be aiming for the sky: it was said that she could be the new Milei, for her libertarian proposals, or the Colombian Trump, to capitalize on the media. Then the prophecy came true.
After three months of being banned from publishing polls, the first one appeared last week. Dávila appears behind a new contender, Abelardo De La Espriella, who has stolen his political oxygen stranger of the far right, and which surpasses all those who contribute to the anti-Petrista vote, that of those who oppose the left-wing president Gustavo Petro. Even the criminal lawyer De La Espriella has no electoral experience or public office, and resembles the former journalist in attacking social networks, often in a histrionic way, with methods that undoubtedly earn him likes and sympathy among the anti-Petrists. But it’s hard to have room for two. strangers in the far right, and in the fight for the anti-government vote, De La Espriella is ahead.
This is not only highlighted by the only known poll on voting intentions this semester in Colombia. The threat is so latent that Dávila does not focus his public appearances only on harshly attacking Petro, but also does so, and constantly, with De La Espriella. This is what a source close to the opponent’s campaign understands, who prefers not to reveal his name because he is not an official spokesperson. “She scored well in some polls when there was not yet a match in the stadium. But in August, when internal polls began to appear in which Abelardo was scoring and she was starting to fall, they started their attacks. We, on the other hand, are clear that we will absolutely not go to fight with anyone other than Petro,” he says.
Davila He then tried to highlight doubts about the criminal, who was the Colombian-Venezuelan representative Alex Saab, Nicolás Maduro’s figurehead and now minister. Thanks to the work of his lawyer, Saab managed to avoid capture in Colombia. The criminal lawyer defended himself: “What do I have to do with the problem of a former partner of mine”, he responded to that old accusation, now transformed into a sort of friendly fire.
Dávila, like many other right-wing candidates, sought the support or at least the approval of former president Álvaro Uribe Vélez, with a leadership strengthened after his acquittal in the second degree of the criminal trial that focused his attention for two years, and with whom he had already met during the electoral campaign. But the right-wing leader is taking the time to choose his favorite for the May elections, he has met many others, and in political circles it is said that he is not in favor of Dávila, even if he keeps the game open. Indeed, the party he leads, the Democratic Center, has four candidates from which the former president can choose, and some assume that he sympathizes more with another candidate and with his enemy Juan Manuel Santos’ former defense minister, Juan Carlos Pinzón.
Meanwhile, the harshest criticisms against the former journalist are starting to come from those who until recently were his allies. “Vicky Dávila’s DISGUSTING strategy to DIVIDE the right”, is the title of a video blog by journalist María Andrea Nieto, who became a columnist for Week when Vicky took over the media and was speaking positively about the candidate. “Maybe Vicky doesn’t know that the enemy to defeat is Petro”, tells him who only a year ago showed Dávila as the victim of an alleged persecution by the president.
Nieto also responded to The W’s exclusive information that the former manager of WeekSandra Suárez, would leave the management of Dávila’s campaign. Alicia Arango, head of debates and one of the people closest to Uribe Vélez, would also do so. Dávila denied Arango’s departure and the campaign confirms to EL PAÍS that she continues to work there. As for Suárez, the candidate clarified that there has always been an agreement for Uribe’s former Environment Minister to work until December 11, when the signatures supporting Dávila’s aspiration are expected to be delivered to the Chancellery. “I would like him to continue as manager,” he said. It remains a hard blow for the media to lose a campaign leader, close to Uribe and the powerful Gilinski family, the richest in Colombia and owners of Week. The cover of the magazine this weekend is no longer about his genius but about his proposals, which asks for the right to decide one’s candidate through a poll, just when the figures on voting intentions favor him.
In recent days, Dávila has also begun to open the door to alliances. This week she met with seven candidates who appear below her in the polls, such as the former mayors of Bogotá, Enrique Peñalosa, and Bucaramanga, Juan Carlos Cárdenas, and former comptroller Felipe Córdoba. In March they organized a popular consultation among themselves which, according to current polls, she could win. It would be a possible way to revive the enthusiasm that his candidacy has produced at the end of 2024 and that other stranger from the right he stole.
