BOGOTA, COLOMBIA – A handful of Colombian politicians openly supported President Trump ahead of the 2020 Presidential Election.
It sparked questions about whether they and members of the Colombian government were coordinating with the Trump Campaign to deliver votes in Florida.
Now that the election is over, Local 10′s Cody Weddle spoke to one of those Colombian politicians who had openly supported Trump to get his thoughts on President-elect Biden
Colombian Congressman Juan David Velez said he’s not concerned about Colombia-United States relations under a Joe Biden administration, and not worried U.S. officials will believe he and his colleagues interfered in the election.
“Colombia is the strongest ally of the United States in the region,” Velez said. “Having Joe Biden as President of the United States or having any President of the United States, we will continue being a very close friend of the United States.”
But Velez, also a U.S. citizen, would have preferred that Trump was re-elected.
He openly supported the president on social media.
That, and online campaigning from several other Colombian politicians, sparked a rare rebuke from the U.S. Ambassador in Colombia a week before the election, who urged Colombian politicians to avoid getting involved.
Sergio Guzman, director of a political risk consultancy in Bogota, believes Biden officials may move to discreetly warn Velez and his colleagues against such outspoken campaigning in the future.
“It puts Colombia’s history of bipartisanship in danger in the United States,” said Guzman. “The U.S. with a history of foreign intervention in elections, needs to make an example out of this so that it doesn’t invite other countries to activate their own diasporas to affect the outcomes of U.S. elections in crucial states.”
President-elect Biden’s team has not yet addressed how they will respond or possibly retaliate against these politicians, who openly voiced their opinions during the campaign.