A Colombian judge has ordered presidential candidate Abelardo de la Espriella to issue a public apology to a journalist, following a series of sexist comments and for pressuring her to comment on his genitals during an interview on the program Piso 8 FM, conducted in mid-May.
The judicial action was initiated following a complaint from a third party, who considered that the far-right candidate's behavior violated the communicator's rights. The complaint details how, during the interview, the politician "showed an intimate photograph from his phone and claimed to have obtained the support of the 'female electorate' based on said image."
Among the phrases included in the complaint are "With that photo I won some really cool votes," as well as several interventions in which De la Espriella insisted that the journalist look at the image and comment on it, with expressions such as "zoom in and tell me what you see there" and "don't be shy," all within "a context that is described as an explicit sexual insinuation."
The judge concludes that this conduct injured several fundamental rights of the journalist, such as her dignity, the principle of non-discrimination, and her right to political participation on equal terms and free from gender-based violence. Therefore, she has ordered De la Espriella to issue a public apology, as reported by the newspaper "El Espectador."
Following the incident, the journalist herself had already reported on her social media that "it was not a simple unfortunate comment," but a profound lack of respect towards her person and her professional work. "I felt violated, harassed, and disgusted," wrote Laura Rodríguez, documenting the impact the episode had.
Given the controversy generated, De la Espriella tried to downplay what happened and apologized, arguing that his words were intended to be humorous. However, the Justice system has rejected these justifications and has specified that the message conveyed implies that women choose their vote based on physical attraction to a candidate, and not based on rational or ideological criteria.