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When John Claro, an opposition councillor within the Colombian metropolis of Bucaramanga, had a disagreement with the native mayor over a colleague’s misconduct, he was left with a crimson face and a ringing in his ear.
In a video of the incident, the mayor may be seen shortly dropping his mood, rising to his ft and unleashing a stream of profanities. Then, he steps ahead, and slaps Claro onerous within the face.
That mayor was Rodolfo Hernández, and on Sunday he may very well be elected president of Colombia.
“It appears to me that he’s not mentally effectively,” Claro instructed the Guardian. “I think about him to be a sociopath.”
Hernández, a 77-year-old businessman, likes to offend. He routinely releases foul-mouthed diatribes on social media, has admitted to not understanding a lot of Colombia, and as soon as described Adolf Hitler as “an amazing German thinker”.
He has claimed that “the perfect can be for ladies to dedicate themselves to elevating their kids,” and known as Venezuelan ladies “factories of poor kids”.
He was initially written off as an oddball outsider, however final month shocked the nation by making it by to Sunday’s run-off election, the place he’ll face Gustavo Petro, a former city guerrilla, and what has been portrayed as a battle of outsiders.
Hernández shares traits with the area’s rising gallery of personalist populists: like El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele, he has used social media (in his case, TikTok) to succeed in undecided voters; like Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro he revels in crass political incorrectness; like Donald Trump, he has a historical past in enterprise, a doubtful comb-over and a platform that’s sturdy on emotion however missing intimately.
“You possibly can examine Hernández to Louis XIV, the French king who stated ‘the state is me’,” stated Claro, who’s supporting Petro’s marketing campaign. “He says what individuals need to hear, he’s erratic, he’s a demagogue, he’s tongue-in-cheek, he’s impolite, he’s a mythomaniac.”
Ought to Petro win, he would develop into the primary leftist president in a rustic the place for many of the final century, political energy has concerned power-sharing pacts between the fitting and the centre-right.
However Petro, a former mayor of Bogotá, has additionally been accused of highhandedness, and his private historical past alienates many in a conservative nation the place the left has lengthy been tarred by affiliation with the numerous guerrilla teams which have battled state forces and their paramilitary allies for many years.
Whereas Petro was the frontrunner for many the marketing campaign – and took 40% within the first spherical – lots of his opponents at the moment are anticipated to line up behind Hernández, giving the septuagenarian self-declared “king of TikTok” a powerful probability of profitable. Current polling has discovered the 2 just about tied.
Hernández was virtually unknown when he received 28% of the vote, after a marketing campaign on social media that was heavy on bashing “elites” however gentle on insurance policies.
One in every of Hernández’s proposals on the marketing campaign path was to take any Colombian that had not been to both of its two coastlines to see the ocean. He posted movies by which he posed shirtless with fashions brandishing a Catholic cross, or sprinkled salt over steak within the type of the web sensation Salt Bae.
He has flip-flopped on a bunch of points, walked out of interviews once they go the place he doesn’t like, and promised an austere and protectionist state. He decamped to Miami on the top of the marketing campaign, claiming he may very well be killed if he stayed in Colombia. And he’s beneath investigation for corruption whereas campaigning on an anti-corruption platform.
However greater than any explicit coverage, what might win the help of the Colombian institution is the truth that he isn’t Petro.
“Anti-Petro voters clarify Rodolfo Hernández, as a result of in Colombia to have been a guerrilla weighs rather a lot – particularly in conservative and rightwing circles,” stated Pedro Piedrahita Bustamente, a professor of political science on the College of Medellín.
“We should do not forget that political tradition, particularly in Colombia, is marked by apathy; it’s marked by dissatisfaction with politics and conventional politicians,” he stated. “Rodolfo Hernández embodies the non-traditional politician, regardless of being now backed by conventional political clans. And his type is attribute of this nation’s tradition of violence.”
However those that plan to vote for Hernández see him as a refreshing break from the established order – and not using a lurch to the left.
“He’s a human being with errors however he’s able to recognizing them,” stated Hector Guillermo Parra, an digital engineer. “He seems to be for fast options to issues with out splurging assets and is making an attempt to cut back the debt with attention-grabbing proposals.”
In Colombia, one of the vital unequal international locations on the earth – the place “engineer” is an honorific when utilized to a rich man like Hernández – the politics of brute drive have by no means appeared distant, particularly when the poor cry for change.
Throughout mass protests final yr, dozens died and tons of had been injured by a police drive let unfastened by the present president, Iván Duque, who’s constitutionally prohibited from re-election. Colombia’s army and intelligence businesses have an extended historical past of spying on enemies perceived and actual.
A 2016 peace deal signed with the leftist guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) – which formally ended a conflict that killed greater than 260,000 individuals and compelled tens of millions from their houses – has been haltingly carried out, for which the incumbent authorities has been blamed.
Violence continues to plague the countryside, the place environmental activists and human rights defenders – collectively often known as social leaders – are killed at charges greater than anyplace else on the earth.
“We’ve got skilled authoritarianism over the past 20 years, and powerful, coarse personalities join with the citizens,” stated María Emma Wills, a distinguished political scientist. “That exhibits you partly the values of Colombian society, proper?”
He has tried to stroll again a few of his most incendiary feedback since making it by to the second spherical of elections. He stated of his Hitler comment that he truly meant Albert Einstein, and has promised to advertise equal pay for ladies and no discrimination clauses in contracts, however few of his detractors are satisfied.
“These sorts of feedback he makes aren’t solely terrible and repulsive, however a mirrored image of part of Colombian society that also thinks that girls ought to keep within the kitchen,” stated Ana Maria Villas, a road artist from Bogotá. “However I’m hopeful that the younger inhabitants of Colombia will cease letting these types of individuals get near energy.”
For Claro, the counselor who has actually felt the impression of Hernández, the alarm bells have been ringing for some time. “He would take us centuries backwards,” he stated. “All the way in which again to the Center Ages.”
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