Paloma Valencia: I'm not going to distance myself from Uribe; I'm going to die a Uribe supporter'

"He has asked me, for example, to stop criticizing the JEP (the Special Jurisdiction for Peace). But I collected signatures to overturn the statutory law that created it. That is a central part of my political identity and my trajectory. I cannot abandon that just to have a running mate."

"Although many of her allies expected her to choose Juan Daniel Oviedo, the runner-up in the primary with 1.2 million votes, he presented her with a difficult line to negotiate on Monday: that she back down on her criticism of the 2016 peace agreement with the FARC guerrillas and stop her attacks on the special tribunal it created."

"If, in a dialogue between different people, you seeks to come out the same, it destroys the meaning of difference. The candidate does not rule out, however, choosing someone with differing views as her running mate."

Senator Paloma Valencia emerged as the frontrunner in Colombia's May presidential elections after winning the center-right primary with over 3.2 million votes. Her expected running mate, primary runner-up Juan Daniel Oviedo with 1.2 million votes, demanded she soften her stance on the 2016 FARC peace agreement and cease attacks on the special tribunal (JEP) it created. Valencia rejected this condition, viewing it as abandoning core Uribista principles established by former president Alvaro Uribe. She maintains her position while remaining open to selecting a running mate with differing views, emphasizing that dialogue between different perspectives requires accepting those differences rather than enforcing uniformity.

Read at english.elpais.com