Politics

Former Colombian Guerrilla Fighter And Socialist Says He ‘Would Vote For Biden, Without A Doubt’

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A Colombian socialist and former guerrilla fighter confirmed his endorsement of presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden on Monday, the Washington Free Beacon reported.

Gustavo Petro, who was part of the left-wing guerrilla movement M-19 in the 1980s before he ran for president as a socialist in 2018, said he would vote for the former vice president over President Donald Trump if he could vote in U.S. elections, the Free-Beacon reported.

“It is not Trump friends of Caracol, it is his campaign in Florida full of prominent uribistas. If I were in the US with the right to vote, I would vote for Biden, only to save humanity from a catastrophe,” Petro originally tweeted in Spanish.

No es Trump amigos de Caracol, es su campaña en la Florida llena de destacados uribistas.

Si estuviera en EEUU con derecho al voto yo votaría por Biden, sólo para salvar a la humanidad de una hecatombe. https://t.co/03jhe8SBTm

— Gustavo Petro (@petrogustavo) August 5, 2020

Caracol Radio is a Colombian news network and the “uribistas” are loyal supporters of the former President Alvaro Uribe, according to Colombia Reports.

“If I could vote in the United States, in the interest of my Latin American people, I would vote for Biden, without a doubt,” Petro said on CNN En Español, the Free Beacon reported.

Fabio Andrade, a Columbian-American activist, said that Petro’s endorsement is offensive, the Free Beacon reported.

“We’re offended, it’s very simple. Knowing what we know about this terrorist, a person that has the blood of Colombians on his hands,” Andrade said, the Free Beacon reported. “This endorsement is pathetic and very dangerous.”

Petro lost the 2018 presidential election to conservative candidate Iván Duque Márquez, the Free Beacon reported. Nine percent of Colombian-Americans voted for Petro, who came in second in the election, according to the Free Beacon.

Colombian narcos were at war with M-19 guerrillas for three years in the 1980s after they allegedly kidnapped a member of the Medellin crime family, according to Colombia Reports. After that incident, M-19 co-founder Juan Marcos Ospina supposedly befriended Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar.