Rodolfo Hernández has been a surprise in the presidential race and this proposes 5:37
(CNN Spanish) --
Socorro Oliveros is the wife of Rodolfo Hernández, candidate for the presidency of Colombia who competes with Gustavo Petro to be elected president of Colombia on June 19.
In case Hernández wins, Oliveros would be the first lady of the country.
Socorro Oliveros, 71, was born in Bucaramanga, Santander.
They met Hernández (77 today) when she was very young, she was about 20 and he was 27, at a river outlet, he told Blu Radio.
One of the first gifts he gave her was a show horse she called 'Pastrana' and she became a rider, she said in an interview on journalist Oscar Lizcano's YouTube channel.
During her first years of marriage she was dedicated to her children and to being a housewife, but years later she took over the family business and today she participates in her husband's campaign.
Oliveros is the third of nine children and has four children —her eldest daughter, Juliana, was kidnapped and murdered by the ELN years ago, in a fact that Hernández has recalled in several interviews—;
They also have two grandchildren.
This bumanguesa, interior designer, defines herself as a "simple, simple" person.
In 2016, when her husband was elected mayor of Bucaramanga, she said she did not like the title of first lady.
"You can tell me I'm the mayor's wife," she said then.
"Being the wife, being a housewife. I like that title better."
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She says that her married life has had ups and downs, but even so they have managed to celebrate 50 years of marriage, she told Noticias Caracol.
Socorro Oliveros, wife of Rodolfo Hernández. (Credit: Instagram)
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For Oliveros, the most important role in her life "has been at home: as a wife, mother and now a businesswoman."
He has worked for more than 30 years at Constructora HG, a family business that has more than 50 years of tradition, the same one that Hernández led in the 90s when there was a housing construction crisis in Colombia.
For about 25 years she has been the administrative manager of the company.
She there she takes care of the financial part.
"I am very careful with money. I try not to waste anything at all," she told Noticias Caracol.
She adds that her husband hardly congratulates her or acknowledges her work.
"She has never told me I
congratulate her, she is doing well
. But I know that in some places where they ask her, she says 'since I released the company in the hands of my family, it is better,'" Oliveros assures.
Oliveros seldom appears alongside Hernández, despite playing an important role in the campaign.
In fact, on May 29, Hernández appeared alone reading a speech, giving his words of victory after finishing second with just over 5.9 million behind his contender Gustavo Petro.
But with Hernández campaigning for the presidency, Socorro Oliveros spends some time in the so-called "Casa Nariño," the campaign headquarters in Bucaramanga, a nod to the Colombian government's presidential home in Bogotá.
"Because we have already done everything in life," he says of his adherence to this campaign, which, unlike the mayoral campaign, is actively working on this one.
"We see that Colombia is at a crucial moment, that someone had to think about Colombians."
De Hernández says that he is "his teacher", that he is "a merengue" and that although he is the one who has the reputation of being brave, he would qualify him more as someone "demanding".
"I do consider myself a little tough. My children say that I have a strong character. That I iron with my hand," Oliveros said in an interview with a local channel in Bucaramanga in 2016.
During the campaign, Oliveros has said that she will work to empower women, something she says she has done during her work as a businesswoman.
What would be the role of Socorro Oliveros in the Casa de Nariño, according to Rodolfo Hernández
"The woman involved in the Government, people do not like it." Rodolfo Hernández's phrase in an interview on Bésame Radio at the end of May.
The piece of the interview generated controversy and the candidate was described as misogynistic and sexist.
However, both Hernández and the radio station communicated the full context of the statement.
Radio host Marcelo Cezán asked her: “They told me that women have been important in her personal life and in her political life;
Many of her cabinet in the Mayor's Office of Bucaramanga were women.
Do you believe in the work of women, in the direction, governing, directing things in some way?
Hernández then referred to what would be the role of his wife Socorro Oliveros if he wins the elections: “It is good that she makes the comments and supports from home.
People do not like the woman involved in the Government, because they see that she is invasive and that she was not the one they chose, they chose her, it was her husband.
So if there's something she has to tell me, she thinks, Socorro, my wife, she's going to tell me at home, but not being stuck there with a car, a driver, advisers, spending money for the citizens, we're not here for that," he said. "This next government has to put the batteries to save."
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