They differ in aspects such as the reform of the Registrar’s Office, the Attorney General’s Office and the National Comptroller’s Office. They agree on the intention of developing a special protection plan for the Colombian Amazon and in areas rich in biodiversity
When analyzing the government programs of both candidates, certain points of agreement in their plans can be highlighted. One of them is the implementation of associative or agribusiness models between large, small and medium-sized producers for the transformation of agricultural products derived from coca leaves and cannabis.
Against all odds, Gustavo Petro and Rodolfo Hernández will compete for the presidency of Colombia on June 19.
The candidate of the Historical Pact was a name that was almost fixed in this electoral phase, according to the polls, and he is the great choice to assume command of the national government as of August 7; however, Rodolfo Hernández is a name that was not in almost anyone’s plans as a contender in the second presidential round. The ‘engineer’, as he calls himself, rebounded in the polls in the last week and surpassed Federico Gutiérrez in the elections on May 29. His main banner during the election campaign was the fight against corruption.
Since his time as Mayor of Bucaramanga, between 2015 and 2019, Hernández has not specified a political position. During the current presidential elections he has affirmed on several occasions that: “Neither from the left nor from the right, hands free and independent until the end. I absolutely deny that my campaign is joining any political name, coalition or party.”
For his part, Gustavo Petro seeks revenge for the elections four years ago, when he finished second in the voting. But unlike the last elections, the left-wing politician is the favorite to win the Presidency of Colombia and govern the country until 2026.
The more than eight million votes that he obtained today in the first presidential round They confirm what the polls have been announcing since the beginning of the electoral contest. They said that in any of the scenarios, the former mayor of Bogotá would win the elections this Sunday, May 29, and, in addition, they give him as the winner in a second round against Hernández, who obtained more than five million votes. We will have to wait.
“What defeat? Eight million free Colombian men and women standing. Here there is no defeat. For now we will not be a government”, were Petro’s first words when he lost the presidency in 2018. And it was at that very moment that he began to outline his third presidential candidacy —in 2010 he was fourth and obtained more than a million votes—; Despite obtaining a seat in the Senate, Petro was looking for a new possibility to govern, apparently close to becoming a reality.
From his place in Congress he became one of the greatest opponents of the current government and began to consolidate his presidential candidacy. “ We return to the Senate not to see how the little articles are negotiated, but to visit the public squares” , he said at the time.
The case of Rodolfo Hernández
Hernández began his career towards the House of Nariño on June 29, 2021, when he registered his candidacy with the National Registry of Civil Status for the citizen movement Liga de Anticorruption Governors.
In the surveys that were carried out this year, the former mayor of Bucaramanga did not exceed 15% in the intention to vote, except in the last one, carried out before the electoral ban, on May 19, when it reached 20% and became a real threat to Federico Gutiérrez, second at that time in the national polls. Today it obtained close to 27%.
On May 21, Patricia Muñoz, postgraduate director of the Faculty of Political Science and International Relations of the Javeriana University, He explained to Infobae Colombia the reasons for Hernández’s rebound and affirmed that his growth was due to getting voters to tune in with his anti-government and anti-corruption discourse.
“The sectors in which this intention to vote has been mobilized has been among young people aged 18-25, among the lowest strata, among citizens who claim to be militants of political parties and of course in the central-eastern region, where it has been strong from the beginning, and now in the central-south, where it outperforms the other candidates,” said Muñoz.
What Petro agrees with and Hernandez
When analyzing the government programs of both candidates, certain points of agreement in their plans can be highlighted. One of them is the implementation of associative or agribusiness models between large, small and medium-sized producers for the transformation of agricultural products derived from coca leaves and cannabis.
Both Petro and Hernández agree on the interest of carrying out a special protection plan for the Colombian Amazon and in areas rich in biodiversity, with the purpose of “saving the lungs of the world” and thus fighting climate change.
The differences
They lie, mainly, in the Colombian countryside. While Petro will look for legal support strategies to speed up the land restitution processes, Hernández proposes banking peasant families so that they can access credit with low interest rates.
Another of the points on which the candidates for the presidency do not agree is based on the functions of the Registrar’s Office, the Attorney General’s Office and the National Comptroller’s Office. Petro in his government plan proposes a reform in these three entities to “respond to the mandate that the Political Constitution of 1991 ″.
For his part, Hernández wants to involve them in the surveillance of public resources and territorial management, by strengthening the system of oversight and social control, “so that the management and actions of officials are also audited.”< /p>
Now it is only less than a month before the citizens of Colombia elect their new president. Although the candidate of the left is the great candidate to reach the House of Nariño and become the first leftist and progressive president in the history of Colombia, Hernández waits on the prowl to give a new surprise and govern the country under his uncertainty of political affiliation.
Ten key proposals of the two presidential candidates.
Rodolfo Hernández:
1.“From the first day of government, commercial relations with Venezuela will be restored.”
2. “Provide banking for rural families so that they can access credit at low interest rates.”
3. “Get Colombian industry to guide their companies to receive the Organizational Carbon Neutral Seal.”
4. Promote changes projected to 2030 to achieve energy self-sufficiency, increasing the level of oil and gas reserves, through an expanded process of new explorations.
5. Prohibit imports of products that the Colombian countryside produces.
6. At least 50% of the cabinet will be occupied by women, with priority for the young population, mothers who are heads of households and people with disabilities.
7. Review the National Police.
8. “Design a framework for the exercise of law with zero tolerance for corruption.
9. Ensure wastewater treatment starting with the country’s most critical basins.
10. Ratify and comply with the Escazú Agreement.
Gustavo Petro:
1. “An agrarian and aquarium reform”. to transform the Colombian countryside into a productive key, of social and environmental justice.”
2. “An international agenda that includes rescuing the Amazon rainforest and revitalizing it, financed by obtaining dividends for burying coal and oil reserves.”
3. “Negotiations with the ELN”.
4. “Creation of the Ministry of Equality”
5. “Free, quality, public higher education.”
6. “Eliminate compulsory military service and respect conscientious objection”
7. “No aerial spraying of scrubs such as glyphosate.”
8. “An education, prevention, treatment and care policy for people with psychoactive substance use with a risk and harm reduction approach.”
9. “Promote the regulation of plants and their derived uses”.
10. “Majority public unified pension system.”