Colombians voted yesterday in a presidential election characterized by a clash of personalities and relentless mudslinging that have overshadowed differences on how to end 50 years of guerrilla violence.
Despite presiding over one of Latin America’s fastest-growing economies, support for Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos’ re-election bid has been falling steadily for months, especially among poor Colombians who have not gained as much from the economic boom.
Amid fatigue with Santos’ rule, former Colombian minister of finance Oscar Ivan Zuluaga has emerged as the strongest challenger thanks to the backing of his one-time boss and mentor: former Colombian president Alvaro Uribe, a still popular, but polarizing figure.
The latest polls placed Santos and Zuluaga in a dead heat a week ago, with each on 29 percent, far below the 50 percent threshold needed to avoid a runoff next month. The remaining three candidates trailed by about 20 percentage points.
The two conservative front-runners served simultaneously in Uribe’s Cabinet, where they backed a free-trade agreement and anti-narcotics cooperation with the US.
Where they differ is on managing the ongoing 18-month peace process with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the country’s largest rebel army.
Santos has made striking a deal to end the longstanding conflict the centerpiece of his campaign.
However, concerns that rebel leaders — on the ropes after a decade-long US-backed offensive — will not have to pay for their crimes have been fueling mistrust of the process that Santos’ opponents have been quick to seize on.
Although Zuluaga says he too favors a negotiated settlement, he says that if elected, he will give FARC negotiators in Cuba a week to show their commitment to peace by declaring a permanent ceasefire.
Zuluaga is also advocating a tougher stance on Venezuela, saying in a debate last week that he will not remain “silently complicit” as Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro jails opponents and stamps out anti-government protests.
Santos has been careful not to provoke the socialist president next door, calculating that Colombia’s extensive commercial ties with Venezuela and its relations with other leftist governments in South America could suffer.
However, those policy differences have largely been engulfed in the past two weeks by a string of bitter attacks and shocking revelations that have left many Colombians ashamed of their politicians after more than a decade of economic and security improvements.
It began with media reports that Santos’ campaign manager, J.J. Rendon, received US$12 million from the nation’s biggest drug traffickers to help negotiate their surrender.
Rendon resigned after acknowledging that he interceded in the case, but has denied taking any money.
Meanwhile, Zuluaga’s camp is reeling from the arrest of a computer expert who worked for his campaign and is accused of hacking FARC negotiators and Santos’ e-mails. Zuluaga has called the arrest a desperate ploy to derail his campaign.
However, the emergence of a clandestinely shot video reportedly showing Zuluaga listening as the alleged hacker outlines his strategy to undermine the peace talks have cast doubt on the candidate’s claim that he had no knowledge of the consultant’s illegal activities.
The tensions came to a head in a feisty exchange at a televised debate last week in which Santos accused his rival of being Uribe’s “puppet” and Zuluaga fired back: “You must show me respect.”
It is unclear if the last-minute feuding will influence voters.
So far, none of the other candidates — former Bogota mayor Enrique Penalosa, former Colombian minister of defense Marta Lucia Ramirez and Clara Lopez of the leftist Democratic Pole party — appear to have capitalized on the widespread disgust with the two better-funded campaigns of their rivals.
Regardless of who wins, the polarizing rancor unleashed by the race will not be easy to mend.
“The entire political class comes out looking bad,” said Ivan Garzon, a political scientist at the University of the Savannah in Bogota.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in