Conservative right in Colombia will seek to maintain power with Uribe’s bishop

The Democratic Center, the ruling party of Colombia, elected Óscar Iván Zuluaga, a close ally of the former president Alvaro Uribe like his letter for the May 2022 elections, in which the left appears as the favorite.

The 62-year-old businessman, former Minister of Finance of Uribe (2002-2010), lost the presidential elections of 2014 in the ballot, despite winning in the first round against then-president Juan Manuel Santos (2010-2018).

Considered one of the former president’s loyalists but without much charisma, Zuluaga promised to work “for employment, security, education, health and equality.”

The candidate aspires to retain power for the conservative right opposed to the peace agreement with the ex-guerrilla FARC, after the four-year term of Iván Duque, who by law will not be able to run for reelection.

The former senator also has the double challenge of straightening the polls when the government hits all-time highs of disapproval (75%) and tackling the favoritism of the leftist Gustavo Petro, head of the opposition and former guerrilla of a group demobilized in the 1990s.

Zuluaga began his proclamation speech thanking “God and the Blessed Virgin” after being presented as the winner in the internal party polls of four other candidates, including Senator María Fernanda Cabal.

A public admirer of Jair Bolsonaro and Donald Trump, loquacious and promoter of the “right” of civilians to bear arms to defend themselves, Cabal is recognized above all for her radical criticism of the peace pact that this week completes five years.

Without dropping the banner of the Democratic Center against the accords, Zuluaga said meanwhile that he will build “consensus” in a society still polarized by peace with the former Marxist rebels.

The party in power led the campaign to “No” to the agreements in a plebiscite, which forced adjustments to the final text that led to the disarmament of what was the most powerful guerrilla in the continent.

As president, Duque tried in vain to modify the agreement in Cuba.

Uribe is one of the most influential politicians of this century and he earned a good part of his acceptance with a heavy-handed policy against leftist guerrillas, in the framework of an armed conflict of more than half a century that still lasts due to the fuel of the drug trafficking.

“Populist left”

In a country historically ruled by the right, Zuluaga will lead the campaign to prevent the coming to power of Petro, the greatest adversary of the Democratic Center, in his third attempt.

“We see a coalition of the populist left with a discourse against freedom, against the free market and against the public force, which seeks to impose a model that has already failed in Cuba, Venezuela, Argentina and Nicaragua and is already failing in Peru”, Zuluaga said this Monday.

The electoral calendar will begin with the legislative ones on March 13, 2022, followed by a first presidential round on May 29 and, if necessary, a second round on July 19.

The end of the confrontation with the Marxist rebels raised concerns such as corruption, the economic slowdown, the health service and the rise in drug trafficking that is punishing the most remote regions.

Hundreds of thousands have protested against Duque throughout his government to demand a change of course.

Zuluaga was mired by a case of espionage to harm the peace talks that had been taking place since 2012 in Cuba and by alleged illegal financing of his presidential campaign in 2014 by the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht.

The now candidate was acquitted of both investigations and assures that the 2014 elections were “stolen” from him through a “montage” orchestrated by Santos.

Towards the end of the proclamation speech, Zuluaga thanked Uribe and regretted the criminal investigation that is being followed for alleged manipulation of witnesses against an opposition senator.

“It hurts me that in our country an ex-president who gave us back hope is subjected to judicial arbitrariness,” he said amid applause.

And at the same time, he regretted that the ex-guerrillas that Uribe fought have a minimal representation in Congress, despite having committed crimes against humanity.