The more than 100 female Colombian journalists who signed the ‘No to the pact of silence’ – a petition calling for answers about former president Andrés Pastrana’s appearance in the Jeffrey Epstein files –have posed 10 questions to candidates in the upcoming presidential elections.
The questions, shared on X last Sunday, intend to make the candidates take a clear position before the public on key women’s issues, including the mentions of Pastrana in the Epstein files.
So far, only two candidates – Roy Barreras and Sondra Macollins – have responded publicly to the questions, which come amid what some have described as Colombia’s #MeToo movement.
“We asked 10 questions to those seeking the presidency,” wrote Ana Cristina Restrepo, one of the women leading the ‘No to the pact of silence’, in an X post on April 12.
The questions addressed the preservation of abortion rights, equal representation in positions of high power, protocols to address violence against women, and the commitment to the continuation, protection, and strengthening of related public policies in support of women’s rights.
Among the 102 women behind the questions are public figures like: María Elvira Samper, a writer, journalist and philosopher; Patricia Nieto, professor at the University of Antioquia and journalist; and Maria Teresa Ronderos, Director of the Ibero-American Center for Journalistic Investigation (CLIP).
The list also includes Jineth Bedoya Lima, a pioneer of #NoEsHoraDeCallar (it is not the time to be quiet) a campaign that denounces sexual violence and urges survivors to speak out against gender-based violence. Bedoya is herself a survivor of kidnapping, torture and sexual violence by paramilitaries in 2000, with her case going to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.
The first candidate to respond to the questions was center-left presidential hopeful Roy Barreras of the La Fuerza Party. “101 women signatories of #NoAlPactoDeSilencio, representing thousands of others, have put these 10 questions to the presidential candidates. Here, in this thread, are my answers,” he wrote on X on April 13.
Sondra Macollins, an independent candidate for the Digital Party, also answered in an X post on April 14.“I want to respond to what has been raised by #NoAlPactoDeSilencio because the truth is not negotiable,” she said.
“The time of the ‘untouchables’ and complicit silence is over. If there are names linked to Andrés Pastrana and Epstein, the country demands clear answers,” added Macollins.
The questions are seen as part of a new women’s rights movement which started in Colombia following the appearance of former president Andrés Pastrana in the Epstein files.
The materials included a photo of Pastrana and Ghislaine Maxwell wearing Colombian Air Force uniforms, alleged compromising emails, and testimonies where Maxwell described the two as friends and claimed to have flown a Black Hawk in Colombia. There were also reports that Pastrana flew on a private jet with Epstein and disgraced agent Jean-Luc Brunel, accused of recruiting minors for the late financier.
Later, #MeTooColombia was brought into focus following allegations by female journalists of sexual harassment in media outlets such as RTVC and Caracol.
According to the official ballot issued by Colombia’s National Civil Registry, there are 14 presidential candidates for the first round, which will take place on May 31. Four of them are women.
