Elections in Colombia: Verónica Alcocer, the jovial and energetic first lady with conservative blood

Gustavo Petro, who was elected president of Colombia in the second round this Sunday, describes his wife and future first lady, Verónica Alcocer, as a Valkyrie, like those Germanic female entities who chose fallen heroes and led them to the hall of glories.

Jovial, smiling and a waste of energy, this coastal one will arrive at Casa Nariño with some unfinished business with feminismafter calling herself “pro-life” and being reluctant to abortion and appearing in a video in which she criticized journalists and insinuated that they were only promoted with sexual favors.

In her role as first lady, Alcocer said in interviews that her position will be “to serve and not to be served”, for this reason she wants to stay in touch with people, “listen” to them and be linked to the cultural sector. Her mirror is Michelle Obama.

from a conservative family from the Caribbean, an admirer of traditional right-wing politicians such as Álvaro Gómez, three-time presidential candidate and constitutionalist assassinated by the FARC in 1995, according to statements by members of the former guerrilla, and his father, former president Laureano Gómez (1950-1951 ), Alcocer was born in 1976 in Sincelejo, capital of the department of Sucre.

Perhaps for this reason, and to be “ultra believers” as it is called, some of these decisions and positions are better understood. “I see God and my little Virgin everywhere, she is always with us”, he told him a few months ago in Timeand even in her early adolescence, “from about thirteen to fifteen”, she wanted to be a nun.

Unlike other Petro campaigns or when her husband was the mayor of Bogotá who remained in the shadows, on this occasion she decided to make many appearances and tour the country, demonstrating her skills as a dancer and echoing regional culture and traditions.

“Drums, clarinet, trumpets and euphones play to the rhythm of the joy of sincerejanas,” was the message with which it premiered on Twitter in January, which he accompanied with a video dancing in his hometown with a troupe.

university meeting

cooked, who is 16 years younger than Petrothey met him “in the early 2000s” when he was studying his first semester of law – a career that started three times and never ended – at Caribbean University Corporation, in Sincelejo, and invited him to university to give a lesson with the others. , as she herself explained a few months ago in an interview with Blu Radio.

“I must confess that that day I did not clearly know who Gustavo Petro was”then said the woman from the coast, who assured that the first time they met “there weren’t many exchanges of words; it just happened, she said a compliment and continued”.

She was fascinated by his intelligence. Petro tells in his book “One life, many lives” that when he found Veronica, “perhaps for her blue eyes and fair hair”, she reminded him “immediately of the Valkyries, the paradise of Germanic warriors”. He says he called her that, and that’s how a woman he describes strongly and radiates strength and joviality has “penetrated” her life.

She was a single mother at the age of 22.and with Petro, who also has previous children, had two daughters, Sofía and Antonella, and after getting married in 2000, they have been together for more than 20 years.

“He has accompanied me up to now in this century, suffered my fears, my dangers, the random moments; The strength of the Valkyrie allowed me to build the strong popular alternative of Colombia’s recent history. Maybe it’s time for the Valkyries to replace me, “writes Petro in his autobiography.

EFE agency

PB