Colombian Senator Paloma Valencia, a frontrunner for the right-wing presidential primary, assured this Sunday that her campaign will not be intimidated by violence, during an event in Bogotá held just a few blocks from the place where her party colleague Miguel Uribe Turbay was assassinated last year. Valencia, a candidate from the uribist party Democratic Center, held this rally in the final stretch for the elections next March 8, in which Colombians will also elect three presidential candidates in primaries from the center, left, and right. «One cannot feel safe when a colleague is assassinated. Of course, there are no guarantees, but we are not going to let the violent ones stop us,» Valencia told EFE during a tour of the Hayuelos neighborhood, in the west of the capital, where she talked with street vendors, handed out flyers, and received expressions of support. Today's event was her last public appearance before the electoral restriction that takes effect this Monday, limiting political activities to closed venues. During the walk, the candidate focused her speech on the economic situation of women, especially informal workers, promising to facilitate their access to credit. «The vast majority of street vendors in this country are women. We have to support them with cheap credit and opportunities so they can get ahead,» Valencia stated. She added: «I am not a feminist, I believe we must understand that the face of poverty in Colombia is a woman and that the State has to accompany her».
