Néstor Laso
Associate Professor of Law at the Universidad Europea del Atlántico
2022 is an election year for the Presidency and Congress in Colombia. Evident strategic movements are already beginning to be detected in the headquarters of the different political parties and pre-candidates, which will possibly come to a boil in the second half of this year.
From the Old Continent, on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, the electoral outcome of next year’s elections in the Latin American country is beginning to be seen with some concern. And even more so if we take into account that one of the main outsiders is the leftist Gustavo Petro, who is not averse to Madurism, in line with other governments of the region that not only are not willing to allow the winds of freedom to blow in Venezuela, but on the contrary, with their tacit or express support they shore up and consolidate the Chavist dictatorship.
To this must be added the entente that Gustavo Petro and his Colombia Humana have woven with his political counterpart in Europe, specifically in Spain, Pablo Iglesias and his coalition United We Can. Pablo Iglesias, whose abrupt departure from the Spanish government a little more than a year after having assumed the Vice-Presidency, is not only blessed by Brussels, with an EU that has always been vigilant of the radical drift that the Government of Pedro Sanchez could take if it accepted the impositions of the Vice-President.
Today it can be said that it is the head of the Spanish executive, his socialist ministers and the PSOE itself, who for the moment are breathing with not having to put up with the whims of Nicolás Maduro’s ally in Spain.
A Spanish government, tired of Pablo Iglesias’ opposition within the Cabinet itself, either by agitating in the streets, as was seen in the episode of the ultra-left activist Pablo Hasél, whom Gustavo Petro himself described as a “poet”, criticizing his imprisonment, despite the multiple crimes for which he was convicted, or by trying to promote legislative projects and measures impossible to put into practice, such as the so-called Housing Law that legalizes the so-called squatters, leaving his own duties as minister in the social area in the middle of the pandemic, resigning from his responsibilities to run for the autonomic elections in Madrid and thus trying to avoid the disappearance of his party and his own political career.
Iglesias’ style is provocative, to the point that he did not hesitate, the same day he announced his candidacy for the Community of Madrid, to brand the center-right and right-wing parties as “criminals” and therefore despising the almost eleven million voters of PP, VOX and Ciudadanos, starting to call for taking to the streets and for anarchy, in clear harmony with the usual argumentation used by Petro in Colombia.
In Europe, there are well-founded fears that if Gustavo Petro comes to power in Colombia, he will look for thousands of excuses so that his mandate will be extended beyond the four-year term, invoking of course the good of Colombia, justifying the measure that it is either him or chaos, in a clear deification as a vulgar dictator who prides himself.
Concern fed by the manifestations to the Colombian journalist Vicky Davila, director of the multimedia Semana, in a recent interview where Petro transmitted that sensation of pretending to be entrenched in power, if he is elected. Of course, he did not hesitate to express that if a bill of a number of congressmen that intended to extend Duque’s presidential term to make it coincide with that of the local presidents prospered, he would once again bring out his followers to the usual riots in the main arteries of Colombian cities. This bill was never endorsed neither by Duque nor by Uribe nor by the Centro Democrático, as a political group.
The left, as usual, criticizes unfoundedly what they later accept as their own premise and way of acting. In plain English, the broad for them and the narrow for others.
Hence, in countries such as the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy and other countries of liberal-conservative Europe, and even in non-Podemite Spain, the possibility that a traditionally democratic Colombia may turn towards the Chavist axis of influence is beginning to be seen as a future problem.
Reasons for concern are not lacking. In Brussels everyone remembers the sad episode that took place in the European Parliament in October 2020, where Petro, with the support of the GUE/NGL Parliamentary Group of the European Far Left (communists, greens and left-wing radicals), surprisingly, threw stones on the economic development and international investment confidence in Colombia, that is, against the welfare of the country in general and the creation of jobs for its nationals, by asking the countries and political parties of the European Parliament to suspend the trade agreements between the EU and Colombia, a clear example that Petro does not dislike fomenting destruction and anarchy, in order to justify his rise to power, which Europe has no doubt he will try to ensure will not be limited to a four-year presidential term.
Fortunately, the European Parliament defeated the proposal of the minority allies in Europe of Petro and the Colombian left, by a resounding result of 541 MEPs against 136 votes in favor of the intended pernicious suspension.
Therefore, it is not trivial that from different European and Spanish watchtowers in general and in particular, the idea that in Colombia a broad center-right coalition could be forged to prevent the anarchy and poverty that Petro’s social-communism abandons from prevailing in the coffee-growing country, preventing his victory at the polls, has begun to be seen with some interest and hope.
Several Spanish Congressman friends and Eurodeputies, knowing my deep connection with Colombia and Barranquilla, are asking me lately the same question: who is Alex Char? Although he is still somewhat unknown to them, his name is already beginning to sound in Europe, as an example of good political manager in his time as Mayor of Barranquilla and as a possible candidate for the Presidency of Colombia to confront the radical leftist policies.
European political and business circles like the fact that Alex Char is a young person, but with successful government experience, seasoned in a thousand battles and who can be the leader of that broad coalition that Colombia needs so much. He is a democrat, liberal, moderate center-right, who believes not only in private property and freedom of enterprise, but also in the respect and protection of human and social rights in general.
His splendid work as the first president of the city of Barranquilla, which he has transformed and modernized, is valued. His achievements in infrastructure, mobility, transportation, as well as in solving the endemic problems of aqueduct, putting an end to the famous streams that flooded the city with water with the rains, or his successful management in attracting international business investment in the district, with the consequent increase in jobs and quality of life for its inhabitants, etc. are recognized.
To this must be added that Barranquilla and therefore the department of Atlántico usually enjoy great political stability, thanks to the popular support obtained by his political movement in the various electoral events, not only in its territory but also throughout the Colombian Caribbean Coast, where his political influence is notorious, if not simply overwhelming.
Since Rafael Núñez from Cartagena, who promulgated the Colombian Constitution of 1886 and was the author of the current anthem of Colombia, occupied the seat of Bolivar, no other person from the coast has reached the Presidency of the Republic. Someone in these years, has deserved it, but the political dynamics, of rivalry cachaco/costeña, possibly has prevented it.
I am referring to Carlos Rodado Noriega, who was a minister, governor, ambassador and constituent congressman, among other dignities. He has left his mark in the different positions he has held. I highlight his work as governor, having been elected the best of the country during his term and as ambassador in Spain, because his management full of agreements and agreements in favor of the Colombian diaspora in Spain, are still in force.
Europe is optimistic that this great agreement between former mayors of Bogota, Medellin and Barranquilla and former governors and liberal, conservative and Christian forces, will come to fruition.
An ambitious agreement that for its achievement and possibilities of success needs the blessing and direction of former President Álvaro Uribe and his political party, the Democratic Center, the most important party in the country at present. Only with Uribe as the promoter and unifier of this broad political option can it be successful, since the 40% of favorability of the Great Colombian will be necessary and decisive to prevent anarchy, demagogy, poverty and lack of freedom from reaching Colombia in 2022. That coalition without the many votes that Uribe still treasures would be doomed to failure.
Alex Char would be the visible head of that great coalition for freedom and democracy. He has demonstrated his know-how and proven achievements that Colombia needs so much. In Europe they are already beginning to understand it this way.
© This article is a translation of the one originally published in Las 2 Orillas
