For Rodolfo Hernández, the last week of the presidential election campaign was marked by the disappearance of his daughter Juliana Hernández, whom he believes to be dead after years of kidnapping. Amid the media frenzy surrounding the case, about which not much is known, Hernández released a statement this Wednesday saying there had been “manipulation based on gossip and rumours” and that his family had been victimized again be. “I ask you to respect my pain, I ask you to respect my daughter’s memory. I hope this is the last time I have to speak on this subject,” the candidate said. Socorro Oliveros, the candidate’s wife, published a letter saying that this Wednesday the family’s lawyer “will make public the start of the process for a judge to declare Juliana Hernández’s official death from disappearance without knowing her whereabouts.” is established, presumably to establish (sic) the date of his death and order the issuance of his death certificate.”
The country learned of the case in 2016 when the then mayor of Bucaramanga told journalist Diana Calderón that her daughter had been kidnapped by the FARC. This guerrilla had previously plagiarized Rodolfo Hernández’s father. He held him captive for 135 days and released him after the builder paid a ransom. It was different with Juliana, as he himself explained in the same radio interview. “My daughter was kidnapped 7 years ago, they asked me for two million dollars and I didn’t deliver when I had her,” he said. Calderón asked her for details of where she had been kidnapped and when the last contact had been. “I don’t know how she was three years ago. The FARC came to blackmail me. I don’t think there is anymore,” he replied, explaining that he believed his daughter was already dead.
Days later, through the same medium, Mauricio Hernández, Rodolfo’s eldest son, stated that the kidnapping had not taken place in 2009, as his father had said, but on June 4, 2004. The son explained that the event happened when a friend of his was attending university and invited Juliana to a nearby farm in Bucaramanga. “The kidnappers used the fact that Juliana had been consuming alcohol to subdue her, and it is not excluded that her fellow university student may have served as an accomplice to facilitate the arrest,” she told Caracol. In that release, Mauricio also said they obtained evidence of his sister’s survival during the first few months of the kidnapping, in which “Juliana was seen in guerrilla uniforms.” Mauricio then said that these images showed the identification of the ELN guerrilla and not the FARC, which was in the process of disarming in 2016, contradicting the version his father had given just days earlier.
The ELN guerrillas appeared in this presidential campaign, in which Hernández is in the second round, and in a statement asserted that the candidate’s daughter was never among his hostages. At the time of the disappearance, criminal gangs were also kidnapping citizens to “sell” them to the various armed groups in the area.
Colombian presidential candidate Rodolfo Hernández bursts into tears during an interview on CNN TV Photo: Charlie Cordero | Video: CNN
The kidnapping story has returned to the media intermittently throughout the campaign. Hernández himself has pointed out in various interviews that, despite his experience, he supports the implementation of the peace agreement that is progressing with the FARC and would negotiate with the ELN.
In one interview with CNN, the contestant broke down in tears and in another on RCN Television, he broke down when he saw a huge image of his daughter on screen. Hernández told Semana magazine he doesn’t believe his daughter is still alive. “If he was, he would have already sent me a reason. She was certainly executed because I refused not to take out any money to pay the armed group,” he said.
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The family also confirmed that despite everything, they were still legally active, retained a seat on their behalf on the board of directors of HG, the candidate’s construction company, and continued to pay their taxes. This was confirmed by Caracol Radio which revealed that Juliana not only has her active taxes but also a property in her name.
In an interview with Univisión a few days ago, Hernández went into previously unknown details. “After 17 years of searching for her, we have already found some information that they gave us that they shot her in the forehead, very painfully.” At the same time, he explained that the prosecutor’s office is not investigating. According to the candidate, they only began to mourn last year. “Now we had to start doing something I didn’t know existed and should have known, which is enforced disappearance, that is, erasing the mother’s ID, NIT (Tax Identification Number) and assets , my wife. ”. This is the process referred to by Oliveros, the mother, which will begin this Wednesday.
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