Who is Marelen Castillo, who could be the next vice president of Colombia?
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(CNN) --
Marelen Castillo is little known in Colombian politics.
In fact, only three months ago her name timidly began to sound in the public after being chosen as the vice-presidential formula of Rodolfo Hernández, the political candidate of the League of Anticorruption Governors, who on May 29 went to the second round and will contest the Presidency with Gustavo Petro on June 19.
Today, after a couple of months as Hernández's vice-presidential formula, very little is known about Marelen Castillo, when compared to other vice-presidential candidates who are already out of the political race and much more so compared to France. Márquez, who was an electoral sensation in the internal consultations on March 13.
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According to an Invamer survey from May 2022, Marelen is known by only 5.8% of those surveyed.
"The perfect strangers are more," Castillo, 53, told Noticias Caracol two weeks before the first presidential round, referring to his recent arrival in politics.
Rodolfo Hernández's vice-presidential formula is described as "a Colombian of the people."
She was born in Cali, the third largest city in the country, and defines herself as a Catholic, "a devout Marian, a believer in the Virgin of Guadalupe."
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Marelen Castillo, candidate for the vice presidency of the Anti-Corruption Leaders League, during a debate in Bogotá, Colombia, on March 30, 2022. (Credit: DANIEL MUNOZ/AFP via Getty Images)
Castillo is now among the political figures of the moment in Colombia, but his name and face are little known.
Rodolfo Hernández, his running mate, self-proclaimed "king of TikTok", has hundreds of thousands of followers on his social networks, but Castillo may be his antithesis in this field as he has an almost invisible footprint on networks: his profile on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram has a few thousand followers so far, and has had a low appearance in mass media.
In announcing her election as vice president, the Hernández campaign gave Castillo a "warm" but unemotional welcome.
And there are very few occasions that she is seen with the popular candidate, unlike the Petro-Márquez duo.
Francia Marquez and Gustavo Petro.
Castillo has been married for 28 years and comes from a family of five sisters.
Her mother was a dressmaker.
She has spent her entire life dedicated to study and academia: she was a college teacher and in the last two decades of institutions of higher education.
He says he has studied all his life, and he is not wrong.
She has a degree in Biology and Chemistry from the Santiago de Cali University, as well as an Industrial Engineer from the Autonomous University of the West in Cali (1995-2000).
She also has a master's degree in Administration from the Technological University of Monterrey and a doctorate in education from Nova Southeastern University in Florida (2013-2016), according to her resume.
In fact, he has said that his contribution to Hernández's candidacy is his experience at the Academy: "He is experience, the entrepreneur today a businessman, and I am the complementary formula from the academy, from education," he told RCN News.
Although he has little experience in politics, Castillo has managed to weather questions about the alleged corruption scandals in which his candidate has been involved.
Regarding the criminal process for an alleged case of corruption in which the Prosecutor's Office has already accused Hernández in the Vitalogic case, Castillo says that Hernández and his family "will have to face them" and the necessary decisions will be made.
"I am very confident that this will not come to light," Castillo told WRadio Colombia.
Hernández has pleaded not guilty and did not accept charges at the last hearing in the case.
The candidate insists that he has never stolen "a peso."
Education, a fundamental proposal
Until before her appointment as vice-presidential formula, Castillo was academic vice-rector of the Minuto de Dios University in Bogotá, and as an educator, in her appearances in local media the message she has carried the most is that of transforming education from early childhood classrooms. up to higher education.
Castillo insists that for her "education is the engine that can transform the country."
"The weight in the formula between the engineer (Rodolfo Hernández) and Marelen really belongs to the engineer," political strategist Augusto Reyes told CNN.
"Marelen is a figure that can be exploited a lot, that can be exploited for the second round."
According to Reyes, Castillo's academic career can contribute a lot to candidate Hernández.
And while Castillo shares some similarities with Francia Márquez, the truth is that Castillo has a different profile.
"There is a big difference with what Francia Márquez has become on Gustavo Petro's side, which is a complete symbol, a complete discourse, a complete narrative also of facts and results from the regions," says Reyes.
"She is an academic who comes from a popular neighborhood in the city of Cali. She is young... (she has) an entire academic career that has something to contribute not only in the debates but also to the ear in what is missing from the campaign," she says. Kings.
ANALYSIS |
Rodolfo Hernández's strategy to reach the second round 7:34
Marelen Castillo and her arrival in politics
As she has told local media, while she was a teacher, Castillo was approached by an acquaintance who invited her to run for the vice presidency.
Hernández summoned her followers to nominate people to be her formula and that is how she arrived.
"When my friend called me, he told me: Do you know the engineer Rodolfo Hernández? And I: the old man from Bucaramanga?", he told Noticias Caracol.
He said that before Hernández announced her as his vice presidential ticket, he had only known him for 15 days.
"What Hernández was looking for was a woman who was not a politician, who was from the Pacific, Afro-descendant and who had worked in the social sphere," she recalls, adding that a few days after applying, Hernández called her on the phone and announced that the he had chosen as his running mate.
Now, there are three weeks left for Hernández and Castillo to conquer the electorate they need to reach the Presidency of Colombia, a great possibility, because according to political strategist Augusto Reyes, Petro has already reached the electoral ceiling, while Hernández has a lot to grow.
"I believe that the atmosphere today is more favorable to engineer Rodolfo Hernández than to Gustavo Petro's candidacy," Reyes pointed out.
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