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Elecciones en Colombia: más de 41 millones de votantes deciden entre la continuidad de la izquierda o un giro a la derecha dura
En un clima de creciente violencia y extrema polarización, los colombianos celebran este domingo unas reñidas elecciones presidenciales entre la continuidad de la izquierda o un giro a la derecha tradicional o dura.
Los sondeos vaticinan que tres candidatos, sobre un total de 11 aspirantes, lucharán por llegar al balotaje previsto para el 21 de junio.
Ellos son Iván Cepeda, de 63 años, candidato del izquierdista Pacto Histórico y heredero del presidente Gustavo Petro; Paloma Valencia, de 48, postulante del derechista Centro Democrático; y el “outsider” del ultraderechista partido Defensores de la Patria, Abelardo de la Espriella, de 47, admirador de Javier Milei y Nayib Bukele.
Otros ocho postulantes de izquierda, derecha e independientes no aparecen con posibilidades reales en las encuestas.
Cepeda lidera los sondeos, seguido de cerca por De la Espriella. Valencia se ubica en tercer lugar. Pero ninguno de ellos alcanzaría el 50% más uno de los votos válidos para ser electos en primera vuelta.
“Hay mucha incertidumbre. El campo está abierto. Hay tres candidaturas fuertes. Cepeda y De la Espriella están con un empate técnico, pero no sabemos qué puede pasar con Valencia, que cuenta con el apoyo de un partido tradicional que puede movilizar el voto el domingo”, dijo a TN la analista política Eugenie Richard, docente de la Universidad Externado de Colombia.
Creciente violencia y polarización
Más de 41 millones de colombianos están habilitados para votar este domingo. Solo elegirán al presidente y su vice. Los comicios parlamentarios se celebraron en marzo. La izquierda emergió como la primera minoría en un Congreso fragmentado y sin mayorías dominantes.
Petro, el primer presidente de izquierda del país, no puede aspirar a una reelección consecutiva, prohibida por la Constitución.
Iván Cepeda, candidato del Pacto Historico, en el cierre de campaña en Bogotá. (Foto: Luisa González/REUTERS)
Las elecciones se celebran en un marco de violencia armada creciente vinculada a la guerrilla y al narcotráfico que obligó a desplegar 248.000 policías y militares para custodiar el proceso electoral. Ese será el gran reto del futuro presidente.
“Hay regiones del país con problemas de seguridad serios. Ha sido bastante complejo en algunas zonas donde sectores armados están haciendo campaña por uno u otro bando. La situación ha sido bastante tensa en estos ultimos días”, dijo a TN el analista Carlos Moreno, docente de la Pontificia Universidad Javeriana de Bogotá.
Se estima que hay 27.000 hombres en armas y 16 zonas en disputa territorial entre las disidencias de las Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC), el Ejército de Liberación Nacional (ELN), grupos paramilitares y organizaciones criminales y del narcotráfico.
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En los últimos meses se registraron atentados, enfrentamientos, ataques con drones y hasta el asesinato del precandidato presidencial de la derecha tradicional Miguel Uribe Turbay, baleado en plena calle en Bogotá el pasado 7 de junio. Tras dos meses de agonía, murió el 11 de agosto.
“La violencia será uno de los temas urgentes del futuro gobierno. En los últimos cuatro años organizaciones nacionales y locales se han fortalecido y en algunas ciudades la violencia ha recrudecido. El nuevo presidente deberá administrar el tema seguridad para ver de qué manera contrarrestar a estas organizaciones armadas”, dijo Moreno. Paloma Valencia, candidata del Centro Democrático. (Foto: Luisa González/REUTERS)
Para Richard, “el clima es bastante tenso». Y señaló: “La Misión de Observación Electoral alertó que hay muchas zonas del país con injerencia de la guerrilla y de grupos armados”.
Pero Colombia también enfrenta otros problemas. El próximo gobierno enfrentará un déficit fiscal de casi el 7% del PBI y una deuda pública que supera el 64% del producto bruto interno. Además, el sistema de la salud está en crisis por un grave desfinanciamiento, según denuncian actores del sector.
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“Muchas clínicas y hospitales están cerrando o no prestan todos los servicios porque no cuentan con una adecuada financiación. Los recursos no alcanzan para conseguir fármacos. Muchas personas no están tomando las medicinas requeridas o, en el peor de los casos, no están siendo atendidas por el sistema de salud”, afirmó Moreno.
En ese escenario, al candidato de Petro le costará doblegar a cualquier rival, sea de derecha tradicional o dura, en un eventual balotaje, según vaticinan las encuestas.
“Estamos en un momento de polarización extrema”, resumió Richard. Abelardo de la Espriella en un acto de campaña en Bogotá. (Foto: Nathalia Angarita/REUTERS)
La irrupción de un “outsider” como De la Espriella es la marca más visible de esa confrontación política. Este abogado, empresario y creador digital se hizo conocido en su país por sus exabruptos y sus propuestas radicales.
En 2017, en un artículo de opinión publicado en El Heraldo de Barranquilla, titulado “Muerte al tirano”, pidió asesinar a Nicolás Maduro. Paradójicamente, entonces era abogado de Alex Saab, el operador financiero colombiano-venezolano considerado “testaferro” del expresidente venezolano.
Desde entondes construyó una carrera mediática que lo instaló finalmente en la escena política como fuerte opositor a Petro. Su plan es claro: como admirador de Javier Milei y Donald Trump, agitó un discurso antisistema y de libertad económica que daría un giro radical a cuatro años de gobierno de izquierda frente a la “tibieza” de la derecha tradicional representada por Paloma Valencia.
Colombia, Iván Cepeda, Abelardo de la Espriella
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African and Caribbean leaders call for payments, debt cancellation, formal apologies over slavery
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African and Caribbean leaders are demanding financial compensation, debt cancellation and formal apologies from countries that benefited from the transatlantic slave trade after adopting a sweeping reparations plan at a conference in Ghana.
The 19-point framework calls for financial compensation, debt relief, a Global Reparations Fund and the return of looted cultural artifacts and ancestral remains. It also seeks reforms to international financial institutions that supporters say disadvantage Third World countries.
The proposal is expected to be presented at the next UN General Assembly as African and Caribbean nations step up a coordinated push for slavery reparations.
The plan was adopted Friday by the African Union and the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Commission on Reparatory Justice at the end of a three-day conference.
REPARATIONS ADVOCATES PUSH FOR PAYMENTS TO BLACK AMERICANS DESPITE BUDGET AND LEGAL CHALLENGES
John Dramani Mahama, president of Ghana, and other dignitaries attend a wreath-laying event at Christiansborg Castle in Accra, Ghana, Friday, during a high-level conference on the United Nations resolution addressing the trafficking of enslaved Africans. (Ernest Ankomah/Getty Images)
«None of us gathered in this hall today can be held personally responsible for the atrocities of the transatlantic slave trade,» Ghanaian President John Dramani Mahama told delegates.
«History does not ask us to inherit guilt, but it asks us to inherit responsibility,» Mahama added.
The proposal does not identify specific countries that should provide compensation or issue formal apologies.
TULSA MAYOR PROPOSES $100M REPARATIONS PLAN FOR DESCENDANTS OF 1921 TULSA RACE MASSACRE
John Dramani Mahama, president of Ghana, lays a wreath at Christiansborg Castle in Accra during a high-level conference on the United Nations resolution addressing the trafficking of enslaved Africans on Friday. (Ernest Ankomah/Getty Images)
It does call for debt cancellation, climate justice financing, expanded citizenship pathways for Africans in the diaspora and what organizers describe as a «right of return» for descendants of enslaved Africans.
The plan also urges African countries to preserve former slave forts and castles as memorial sites.
According to advocates, at least 12.5 million Africans were kidnapped and transported aboard European ships between the 15th and 19th centuries. Supporters of reparations argue the effects of slavery continue to be felt across Africa and the Caribbean generations later.
UN COURT RULES WEALTHY NATIONS PAY UP FOR CLIMATE CHANGE DAMAGES IN CONTROVERSIAL GLOBAL RULING
President John Dramani Mahama and Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa host a high-level consultative conference on the next steps following the United Nations resolution on trafficking of enslaved Africans in Accra, Ghana, on Thursday. (Ernest Ankomah/Getty Images)
The conference follows a UN vote in March recognizing transatlantic slavery as the «gravest crime against humanity.»
The resolution passed with 123 votes in favor, but the U.S., Israel and 52 other countries either voted against it or abstained.
According to Reuters, the United States and European Union raised concerns that the resolution could be interpreted as creating a hierarchy among crimes against humanity by treating some atrocities as more serious than others.
MACRON TAKES THE STAGE UNINVITED AT AFRICA SUMMIT TO SCOLD CROWD FOR ‘TOTAL LACK OF RESPECT’
John Dramani Mahama, president of Ghana, Mia Amor Mottley, prime minister of Barbados, and Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, Ghana’s foreign affairs minister, attend a wreath-laying event at Christiansborg Castle in Accra, Ghana, Friday, during a high-level conference on the United Nations resolution addressing the trafficking of enslaved Africans. (Ernest Ankomah/Getty Images)
Heads of state from Namibia, Liberia, Senegal, Barbados and Sao Tome and Principe attended the conference, along with senior officials from several other countries.
French President Emmanuel Macron addressed the gathering virtually from the Élysée Palace, where he acknowledged the suffering caused by slavery.
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Enslaved people were «torn from their homelands, deported, dehumanised, and treated as goods,» Macron said.
Macron also said reparations should not be viewed «as an end point, or a cheque written to bring the story to a close.»
The conference in Ghana brought together separate reparations efforts previously pursued by African and Caribbean nations into a single document that organizers plan to take before the United Nations.
Reuters contributed to this report.
africa, united nations, caribbean, heritage, general assembly, world
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Former Olympian among those charged with vandalizing Reflecting Pool; Trump says basin must be drained: report
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Multiple people have been arrested this weekend after allegedly vandalizing the newly refurbished Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, prompting a strong response from President Donald Trump and an increase in security at the site.
In a statement on Truth Social Saturday night, Trump announced «many additional people» have been arrested after suspects «took some form of knife or blade, and put a 250-foot-long gash into the beautiful facade of what took so much work, competence, and money to build and complete.»
The president also alleged suspects «poured corrosive and destructive chemicals» into the basin.
«It hasn’t looked or worked like this since 1922, when it was originally built, but even then, it leaked badly, and didn’t work,» Trump wrote in the post. «Ours worked perfectly, including the mirror like finish, perfectly reflecting the two Great Monuments, which it never had before! What these terrible Vandals have done is a true affront to both Presidents George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, and should be dealt with accordingly.»
TRUMP SAYS VANDALS USED CHEMICALS TO DAMAGE NEWLY RENOVATED REFLECTING POOL NEAR LINCOLN MEMORIAL
National Park Service employees and contractors use vacuums to remove green algae from the bottom of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, Thursday, in Washington, D.C. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Trump said administration officials met with contractors Saturday and will likely need to drain «much of the water» in order to do the necessary repairs.
It is unclear if the contractors mentioned are the same ones initially employed to carry out the renovations.
«[We] will have them done as quickly as possible,» the president wrote. «What they have damaged does not even include the earlier killing of a large amount of grass which was, by far, the least of it.
«… The Reflecting Pool was never so beautiful as it was just one week ago, even going back to 1922 when it opened. We are very proud of what we have done with this magnificent structure, and we will get it repaired, quickly, to an equal level of Beauty.»
The announcement came as the administration faces scrutiny over peeling paint and algae growth just weeks after a $14.8 million restoration project was completed.
While Trump did not specify who was responsible for the alleged gash in the lining and subsequent peeling, multiple arrests were documented over the weekend by local reporters.
Paint peels from the bottom of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in Washington, D.C. (Annabelle Gordon/Reuters)
TRUMP TAKES MOTORCADE INTO REFLECTING POOL, BLASTS PAST ‘$38M DISASTER’ FIX UNDER OBAMA
Journalist Emily Miller posted a two-minute video on X Friday showing a man in lime green racing gear questioning a National Guardsman before being handcuffed by U.S. Park Police.
The Washington Post later identified the man in Miller’s video as David Hearn, 67, a three-time Olympian who was arrested on a misdemeanor charge of destruction of government property.
Hearn told the outlet he had just finished a 52-mile bike ride when he noticed a «partially detached piece» of the new pool liner and «reached into the water to see what it felt like.»
The Bethesda, Maryland, native told The Associated Press he owned a company that made composite used to build watercraft.
Former U.S. Olympian David Hearn was arrested after allegedly vandalizing the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in Washington, D.C. (David Madison/Getty Images, File)
While Miller claimed in her post that Hearn «grabbed» a hose that National Park Service workers were using to remediate algae growth, Hearn told The Washington Post the hose «may» only have been touched by his bike tire.
«I didn’t vandalize anything,» Hearn told the outlet.
Hearn, who was arrested in 1996 on charges of canoeing on the Potomac River but later had them dropped, said, «I didn’t destroy, break or peel anything. By the time I realized what was happening, I was already being handcuffed.»
National Guard members walk past a National Park Service employee using a vacuum to clean the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, Friday, in Washington. D.C. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
Miller reported that seven people were detained Friday and five people were detained Saturday in separate incidents, which has led to a major security surge.
In an earlier Truth Social post Saturday, Trump questioned, «Who would do such a thing?»
«These are very serious crimes having to do with the destruction of National Monuments,» the president wrote. «Years in jail! Work will begin immediately on its repair.»
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The White House, U.S. Park Police and Miller did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s requests for comment.
Fox News Digital’s Michael Sinkewicz contributed to this report.
vandalism, national guard, white house, parks, donald trump, police and law enforcement, washington dc
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