America has recently seen many populist outsiders shaking up national politics, and Hernandez wants to do the same in Colombia. He doesn’t mind drawing comparisons to the far-right populist Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro or former US President Donald Trump, telling CNN in early June: “What I will do is defeat corruption. If they call me ‘Columbian for it’ Trump, that’s fantastic.”
Hernández, who is 77 years old, holds a degree in civil engineering from the National Public University of Colombia, known as El Ingeniro (Engineer) – or El Viejito del Tiktok (The Old Man of TikTok), his active Given the social media presence. for.
His presidential campaign abandoned traditional broadcast debates and political rallies, instead appealing to voters via their phones.
The result is that, other than introducing voters to his gaffe-prone style – he once called Adolf Hitler a great German thinker and later apologized that he meant Albert Einstein – very few people actually knew. What a Hernandez President would look like.
His platform includes some specific reforms, when Hernandez himself admitted that speed was not on every issue on the government’s agenda.
To describe his presidency, he compared himself to the CEO of an airline, explaining that he doesn’t know how an airplane engine works, but has the skills to manage a company for profit.
His personal story is one of rags-to-riches. Born in 1945 to a lower middle-class family, Hernandez built up real estate in the 1990s as millions of Colombians moved from rural areas to urban areas. He later entered politics, becoming mayor of Bucaramanga, Colombia’s seventh largest city, in 2016.
Hernandez has also personally experienced the tragedy of Colombia’s decades-long armed conflict, in which at least 220,000 people died. In 2004, his daughter Juliana was allegedly kidnapped by the National Liberation Army (ELN), one of several left-wing guerrilla groups that have rebelled against the Colombian state in the past 60 years. Hernandez recently revealed that her body was never found.
a series of u-turns
Hernandez’s most obvious pitch has been his promise to “get rid of corruption”. It’s a serious issue: According to a recent Gallup poll, 80% of Colombians say corruption in government is widespread.
But how Hernandez intends to do so remains a mystery. For example, he has vowed to reduce government costs by getting the presidential plane off the ground or turning the presidential palace into a museum. However, he has not proposed any legal solutions to tackle corruption more comprehensively – although he told CNN he would call for a state of emergency to fast-track any necessary legislation.
Hernandez has had his own problems with corruption allegations – and some continue. By his own admission, Hernandez is the subject of 38 investigations for corruption, with one expected to go to court next month.
Hernandez denied that allegation, telling CNN that “with the current laws, anyone can sue every candidate.” The case is likely to stall if he wins the presidential election this Sunday, as Colombian law requires congressional approval to put the incumbent president on trial.
Much of Hernandez’s political trajectory can be described as a series of U-turns.
In 2016 he revealed that he had voted against the historic peace agreement between the Colombian state and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). But in his presidential campaign pledge, he said he would respect the treaty, and even proposed a “copy-paste solution” to negotiate with the ELN – the same group alleged 18 years earlier. It was alleged that he had killed his daughter.
Speaking on the environment – specifically around the issue of fracking – Hernandez has changed her mind throughout her campaign, first declaring herself in favor of exploration projects and then in a TikTok video saying “F**k fracking!” Appeared to be screaming.
When it comes to foreign policy, his campaign has been opaque. One of Hernández’s closest advisers, Nagel Bacasino, told CNN that Hernández plans to align his administration with leftist leaders such as Brazil’s Ignacio Lula da Silva or Argentina’s President Alberto Fernández. But Hernandez himself has also said that his focus will be on improving Colombia’s relations with the United States.
Constantly changing his position, the self-proclaimed “king of TikTok” may come across as indecisive, but avoiding ideological lines is also a part of his brand.
For example, they are in favor of ending Colombia’s ties with Venezuela and ending the war on drugs, two issues that are important to Colombia’s left. However, economically speaking, he stands for the central tenant of the country’s right to a free market.
As knowledgeable salesperson as he is, Hernandez has managed to sell himself to enough Colombians to reach the final round of voting.
But with all their confusing branding and marketing strategies, it remains a blind sell.