Humberto de la Calle has been chosen as the new presidential candidate from the Liberal Party in Colombia.
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73 year-old De la Calle is best known for his leadership role in the 1991 Constituent Assembly and during the time he served as the head of the negotiating team for the peace process with the FARC (now a political party).
Nearly a thousand policemen guarded the polling stations in the department of Cali where the internal consultation took place with no incidents reported during the elections.
Humberto de la Calle won 365,658 votes, against the 324,777 votes won by Juan Fernando Cristo in the internal consultation carried out by the Liberal Party, where a total of 744,521 people voted. De la Calle will be the only candidate representing the party for the 2018 presidential elections in Colombia.
De la Calle, who was born in Manzanares (Caldas), expressed his gratitude towards those who voted for him, noting the victory marks a first step "towards a new country."
"The best thing about this result is that it shows that it is possible to go beyond peace. Today we celebrate the Liberal Party and we celebrate the country, because we have a democracy that allows the voice of women and men of good will to be heard. This was possible because we have a living democracy," he said, El Tiempo reported.
He also showed his commitment to address the issue of inequality. "I believe frankly and without apology, that there is no margin of delay to combat the immense gap between rich and poor," De la Calle said, according to El Tiempo.
De la Calle also served as a Colombian ambassador to the the OAS during Andrés Pastrana Arango's administration and resigned when Alvaro Uribe came to power.