Gustavo Petro, from the Historical Pact, and Rodolfo Hernández, from the League of Anticorruption Leaders, are the two candidates to occupy the House of Nariño for a period of four years.
Both break with the streak of politicians who disputed the Presidency of this nation, currently involved in a crisis.
The two candidates arrive at this day with a technical tie, according to some polls, although others give an advantage of 10 percentage points to Petro, who represents the alternative and left sectors.
Hernández, on the other hand, although he is not part of any traditional party either, is the bet of the extreme right sectors and arrives marked by several accusations against him for scandalous crimes of corruption.
This electoral process occurs at a time when the outgoing government is singled out for non-compliance with the Peace Agreement, the extermination of social leaders and the socioeconomic crisis, according to a report by Human Rights groups.
In a balance of the four years of the government of Iván Duque carried out by the Colombian Platform for Human Rights, Democracy and Development, the Colombia Europe United States Coordination and the Alliance of Social and Related Organizations, made up of more than 500 social organizations, they warn about the legacy left to the new presidency.
The document called Hunger and War: The Legacy of the Apprentice, points out that “the extermination of social leadership has reached the level of a true ongoing genocide, in force and unpunished, and constitutes one of the most dramatic expressions of the actions of the Duque government against the peace process”.
It also notes that throughout the peace process the victims of mass displacement increased 675 percent. They also hold the Duque government responsible for the breach of the Peace Agreement, the humanitarian crisis and the reactivation of the war for not fulfilling the commitments assumed by the State with the Agreement to end the violence.
“Dismantling paramilitarism, reforming security agencies and guaranteeing the free exercise and non-violent repression of social protest, are undoubtedly issues in which this government failed,” the text underlines.
The platforms explained that the citizen nonconformity manifested in recent years had an outbreak in 2021 with the social protest that was responded with the “excessive and indiscriminate use of force.”
On the other hand, the Government failed to meet the goals of the development plan in social matters, and Colombia was consolidated as one of the most unequal in Latin America and third in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
“At the end of the four-year term of Iván Duque’s government, the country has experienced one of the most serious humanitarian crises in many years, as it returned to a situation of violence and social precariousness similar to that experienced at least 10 years ago, before the start of the peace process,” they say.
Before this scenario, Duque became one of the most unpopular presidents in history with barely 20 percent approval.
Now, the new head of state that results from this process has an important challenge to transform the country.
If Petro wins, who precisely proposes a “change for life”, it would be an unprecedented victory in the history of the left in Colombia, but if Hernández achieves victory, the country will have a president who is unaware even of its own geography and it is supported by right-wing sectors that refuse to suffer an electoral defeat.
A total 39 million two thousand 239 citizens are qualified to participate today in the second electoral round, from which the new president and vice president of Colombia will emerge.
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