Without traditional political parties and with a fortune forged as a businessman in the real estate sector, Rodolfo Hernández aspires to be the first independent president in Colombia in decades. His main focus is on the eradication of corruption and some of his achievements as mayor of the city of Bucaramanga support this, although he is also accompanied by controversy on this matter and criticism of his marked populist character. ‘The Engineer’ is shown as the “alternative to polarization”.
Without mincing words and ‘outsider’ of traditional politics. Rodolfo Hernández ascends as an electoral surprise with possibilities of winning the Presidency of Colombia. But his momentum among the electorate would be in his management and representation against long-standing evils: corruption and political extremism, which have exhausted the patience of thousands of citizens.
“Grandpa”, some call him. Tender or grumpy, depending on where the look comes from. Between smiles and a characteristic frontal language, Hernández’s voice has not trembled, nor his hand, to show his rejection. The slap in the face of a councilman is among his biggest scandals.
“Corrupt politicians must be kicked out”, “no one is above the law”, “they are a factory for making poor Chinese”, in reference to the birth rates of Venezuelan migrants in Bucaramanga, a city from which was mayor, are some of the controversial statements of the businessman and politician that penetrated among supporters and critics.
His figure has been growing in intention to vote in recent weeks according to the polls, all this despite some rudeness, such as not wanting to participate in the electoral debates with other candidates. His detractors reject the simplicity of many of his messages, but perhaps this characteristic is one of the keys to his success among the middle and lower classes of Colombia.
At 77, he is the oldest candidate in the presidential elections and has relatively recent political experience. And it is that most of his life has been dedicated to his profession as a civil engineer, with which he entered the real estate market and built his fortune, as he acknowledges, of around 100 million dollars. Funds with which in 2015 he financed his candidacy for Mayor of Bucaramanga, capital of the department of Santander, in eastern Colombia and fifth in importance in the country.
It was from that position that he made his way into politics, with a strong speech against corruption. ‘The engineer’, as he is known, received the local Administration with a treasury deficit of $237 billion pesos, about 60,000 million dollars, and managed to reduce the figure to $0 at the end of his mandate.
However, he did not manage to complete it surrounded by controversy, including accusations of alleged corruption that he rejects and refers to the persecution of a traditional political elite that was affected by his actions against that scourge.
He has made his campaign banner out of that evil and after his experience, he hopes to transfer the management against this crime from a city to an entire country.
From the son of a peasant family to a successful businessman and former mayor
He comes from a peasant family in the municipality of Piedecuesta, about 20 kilometers from the so-called ‘City of Parks’, which he would later direct.
“I am a son of public education,” he has said in reference to all his academic training, which is why in his youth he moved to Bogotá, the country’s capital, where he obtained his professional degree at the National University.
In the 1990s, when Colombia was going through a crisis in the construction sector, he began his successful career as an entrepreneur. He built social housing, which he financed from his company, which worked as a construction company and a bank at the same time.
“I don’t need money because I already worked for that. What I want is to return to Colombians a little of what they have given me”, he has reiterated in multiple public interventions.
In January 2016, he took office as Mayor of Bucaramanga, after prevailing over a candidate from the Liberal Party. It was the first time that he won over a representative of a traditional political elite. The same feat that he hopes to repeat in the race for the Casa de Nariño.
In 2018, when his cuts in expenses in the local Administration were known, he starred in a heated meeting that was recorded on video. The then mayor punched Councilman John Claro in the face, who came to his office and accused him of alleged acts of corruption. “This was a setup by the councilman and I fell,” he said then.
Due to this situation, the political leader faced an eight-month disqualification, but now, he assures, he does not regret it. “Well done. I don’t regret it because he was a saboteur. He also went violently. What happens is that you do not know the prelude to that action of mine. What could have saved me that? Yes, I ask for a thousand excuses. But he was a saboteur”, he expressed this May in an interview with local television.
Since 2021, Hernández has been trying to make the leap from regional politics to the national stage, leading the newly formed Anti-Corruption Governors League movement. And once again, he finances his political campaign with his own funds.
According to a recent report by the National Electoral Council, to which the presidential candidates must show the financing of their campaigns, the total income for their electoral crusade adds up to around 1,000 million dollars. Of them, the presidential candidate and his wife, Socorro Oliveros, have financed nearly 35,000 dollars. The rest comes from bank loans.
Hernández describes it as an austere campaign, compared to the 19,402,200,000 million pesos, around 5,000 million dollars, declared by the favorite in the polls, Gustavo Petro, and whom the businessman could face in the second round, according to the same polls.
kidnapping tragedy
The leader has also been a victim of the Colombian internal conflict. His father was kidnapped by the then guerrilla Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). Although Hernández paid that ransom, years later the drama would repeat itself and this time the victim would not come out to tell about it.
Ten years later, in 2004, the National Liberation Army (ELN) kidnapped her daughter Juliana. Since then, nothing is known about her and Hernández assumes that she was murdered as she described in tears and with a broken voice in an interview that he offered a few weeks ago.
Even so, a peace agreement with the ELN, similar to the one signed by former President Juan Manuel Santos with the FARC, is among his main government proposals.
Anti-corruption hero or mirage?, the actions of Rodolfo Hernández in the face of the scourge
Does it seem little to you? Hernández has responded when questioned that his main focus is directed against corruption. And it is that in a country where 80% of the citizens consider that this is the biggest problem and black hole, it is not surprising that thousands have joined in their favor.
Rodolfo Hernández ended his term in the Mayor’s Office with a citizen approval of 84%. Since he was elected, he gave free rein to cut spending in the Public Administration that in his opinion were “unnecessary”.
During his term, he reduced the city’s spending by 30,000 million pesos. In addition, after receiving a deficit of 237,000 million pesos, about 60,000 million dollars, he reduced it to zero by the time he finished his job.
Likewise, it left a surplus of 48,000 million pesos, about 12,000 million dollars, that is, the amount of income increased with respect to expenses.
But not everything has been achievements. Hernández is also the only presidential candidate who has an open investigation against him, precisely for alleged acts of corruption.
Since April 2018, the Attorney General’s Office began an investigation into the alleged irregularities in a contract valued at 750,000 million pesos, more than 190 million dollars, for the management of solid waste, known as the Vitalogic case. Firm that would have tried to favor.
Hernández is currently facing trial in this case, although he insists that he is innocent. “They didn’t just put that one in me, they put 200 investigation processes in me. What was the objective?: get me out of the Mayor’s Office. I didn’t steal a single peso from there; On the contrary, all the salary that citizenship paid me was given to different programs that involve young people. Pure straw. I have a clear conscience. They have been accusing me for five years and they never have enough evidence and they end up postponing the hearing, ”said the former regional president, referring to the processes he has faced since he became Mayor of Bucaramanga.
Hernández did not finish all his time as local president. With three months remaining to conclude, he resigned because once again the Attorney General’s Office opened a process for his alleged participation in politics in favor of the then-candidate and current mayor Juan Carlos Cárdenas.
The proposals of Rodolfo Hernández
On the one hand, it takes up progressive ideas reminiscent of the popular former president of Uruguay José ‘Pepe’ Mujica, with proposals such as legalizing the recreational use of marijuana and rethinking the fight against drugs on a global level.
On the other hand, he agrees with the left in questioning the impact on the pockets of local workers generated by free trade agreements, especially on Colombian agriculture. With his sights set on it, his plan is to stop the importation of food produced in Colombia.
And of course, it should not be surprising that his government program contains measures to mitigate corruption. Among them, making “big budget cuts” in matters in which he considers that large sums of money are lost. He proposes to stop using presidential airplanes and helicopters, close some embassies, reduce salaries of public officials and withdraw official vehicles from congressmen.
He has also assured that if he wins the elections he will donate his salary as president, something he already did as mayor of Bucaramanga.
Questioned or exalted, Hernández has managed to break into a contest that could make history in a country where voters do not remember a president who has come to power outside the traditional political parties. An eventual blow to the polarization between the right and the left, which has divided millions of Colombians, as demonstrated by the votes for the 2016 Peace Agreement and the last presidential elections of 2018.
#Rodolfo #Hernández #independent #aspires #slap #corruption #Colombia