This Sunday, June 19, 2022, Colombian citizens return to the polls to decide in the second round who will be their president for the next four years.
While Rodolfo Hernández, the independent candidate, 77, has rejected any type of television debate with his political opponent and is committed to publicizing his proposals in small doses through social networks, the leftist candidate Gustavo Petro, 62, presents a broad government program entitled “Colombia: world power of life”.
DW asked its Colombian users, on Twitter, what are the most urgent problems in the country and analyzed the main proposals of Petro and Hernández around these issues.
#ColombiaDecide
Your opinion counts! Petro or Hernández?: This June 19, #Colombia elects its president. And @dw_espanol wants to know the opinion of its users. What are the problems that most concern Colombians?
— DW Español (@dw_espanol) June 9, 2022
Gender equality and women’s empowerment
With his ten proposals to improve the lives of Colombian women, Rodolfo Hernández responded to the critical voices that accused him of being macho. It promises to achieve gender equality in the workplace, closing the pay gap. In addition, it plans to support women entrepreneurs with loans with low interest rates and developing training programs for women. Another of his proposals focuses on a “comprehensive system of care that recognizes unpaid work.”
“Change is with women,” reads one of the central slogans of Gustavo Petro’s government program. In order to achieve equality and the empowerment of women, it proposes the creation of a Ministry of Equality and a National Care System “that recognizes and rewards, reduces and redistributes feminized care work.”
Environment
While both candidates agree on the need for a transition from fossil to clean energy, as well as a gradual independence from oil and coal, Hernández is betting on fracking or hydraulic fracturing, which uses large amounts of water and chemicals to extract oil. Petro completely dismisses this technique and stresses that, in addition, “no new licenses will be granted for the exploration of hydrocarbons, nor will large open-pit mining be allowed.”
Petro aims to make Colombia a world power in the fight against climate change and biodiversity loss. It also highlights the importance of moving towards a productive economy in harmony with nature, for which it will promote agroecology. Water, he promises, will be a fundamental right and a common good of universal access. Therefore, he plans to order the country around water.
Economy and employment
Both Petro and Hernández agree on the importance of substituting imports. In order to generate more jobs, the independent candidate supports the private sector and is committed to global competitiveness. Hernández wants to reduce the barriers for new entrepreneurs and promote, above all, digital ventures. And he intends to finance his government project through austerity policies and an anti-corruption fight. It also plans to lower VAT from 19 percent to 10 percent and transform it into a consumption tax.
For his part, to swell the state budget, Petro proposes to raise about 5 percent of GDP through a tax reform. Another striking aspect of his proposal is that he intends for the State to play a key role in job creation: “The State will act as an employer of last resort offering employment to those who can and want to work, but do not find employment in the private sector,” reads the government program.
Security and the peace process
The leftist candidate assures that he will comply with the Peace Agreement with the FARC. “We will move from the failed war on drugs to a comprehensive process of substitution of economies and lands, in favor of a productive economy that dignifies rural populations and protects nature,” he says.
Despite having voted NO in the 2016 plebiscite on the Peace Agreement, Hernández today promises to comply with the treaty. As for the ELN, he advocates an express negotiation process, while Petro says he is open to a broad dialogue with the guerrillas and other criminal groups.
In terms of security, the leftist presidency proposes to reform the Army and the Police. Hernandez, for his peerte, is committed to greater training and training in human rights.
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