Less than 24 hours before the opening of the polls in the country, false information began to circulate. This time, the attack was against the candidate Rodolfo Hernández in which, supposedly, a clinic certified that he had a mental illness. The information is false and the health institution rejected the improper use of his image.
“There are no records in our system of clinical records of care for Mr. Rodolfo Hernández Suárez, on February 11, 2021, neither earlier nor later. The document does not correspond to the electronic medical record format handled by the Clinic and the doctors that appear are not part of our general or specialist staff”, explained the director of the Bucaramanga Emergency Clinic, Fernando Villarreal Amaya.
The circulation of false information began to roll around 7:17 in the morning of this June 18. The false statement read that the Clinic had diagnosed the current presidential candidate with a mental illness.
According to Dr. Villarreal, his clinic will file a criminal complaint with the Prosecutor’s Office and added that his team will be on alert for “any clarification or precision that is required in such a delicate situation.”
For its part, Hernandez’s campaign described the circulation of false information as part of a “dirty campaign.”
“The desperation of knowing that Colombians will charge them tomorrow, as it hurts them the most, (…) has led them to attack the most basic human values, such as dignity and truth. It is not true, what they have published to make it seem true that I have been diagnosed with a serious mental illness is completely false, ”the 77-year-old engineer wrote in a statement.
The candidate of the League of Anti-Corruption Governors also recalled other attacks with disinformation that he has received in the race, such as the versions that revolve around the kidnapping of his disappeared daughter, Juliana Hernández Oliveros.
“It breaks the heart to see how far human misery is capable of reaching. It has not been enough for them to re-victimize our family, which has not yet recovered from the pain of the kidnapping and disappearance of our daughter,” said the former mayor of Bucaramanga.
