With a 28.15 percent share of the vote, Rodolfo Hernandez, the leftist candidate of the Anti-Corruption League party, took Colombia's first round election results by surprise.
Rodolfo Hernandez, the candidate who seeks to break the traditional molds of politics, will have to compete against Gustavo Petra in the second round of voting to be held on June 19, three weeks after the first round.
Some of the relevant points proposed by Rodolfo Hernández range from security and conflict issues, where he seeks to open a process of rapprochement between the ELN and the peace agreement signed with the FARC; in addition to seeking guarantees that allow the application of the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP), to mention a few.
His environmental proposals include the creation of teams within the armed forces to combat deforestation, displacement, illegal hunting and mining, and river pollution, as well as the creation of an agrological and environmental map that defines the land's vocation.
In the area of health, he proposes to stimulate the national drug industry to lower costs, provide care to the entire population, regardless of the regime to which it belongs, to mention a few points.
Rodolfo Hernandez and the ten things you should know about him
1.-Rodolfo Hernández Suárez, 77 years old, is originally from Piedecuesta, Colombia. He is a civil engineer, businessman and politician, as well as leader of the political movement Liga de Gobernantes Anticorrupción.
2.- Within his trajectory as a politician is having been mayor of Bucaramanga from 2016 until his resignation in 2019.
In 1992 he was a councilman in the municipality of Piedecuesta, Santander, however, he never attended or took office as a councilman. His participation was limited to sending a letter announcing his resignation when his term expired.
He has his own fortune and presents himself as "Engineer Rodolfo Hernández". He calls himself an "outsider", that is to say, an independent politician outside the traditional parties.
In the last Colombian elections, he obtained 5.9 million votes, which makes him compete in a second round with Gustavo Petro, the latter being the favorite to win the presidency.
6.-He comes from a working class family, and made his fortune in the 90's when Colombia was going through a construction crisis and entered the low-income housing business.
He is the creator of PLAN 100, a financing plan in which families could buy a house in 100 monthly installments, paying them directly to the engineer whose company was both a construction company and a bank.
Rodolfo Hernández has had a life marked by the guerrilla, since his father was kidnapped for more than 100 days by the FARC and it is believed that the ELN kidnapped and killed his daughter.
9.- Despite his age, he is a famous Tik Toker with a total of 540.7 thousand followers and a total of 4.3 million "likes" with the account ingrodolfohernandezwhere he has made himself known. He also maintains an anti-system discourse with which he has managed to defeat other candidates with a more consolidated trajectory and has also renounced to large public events.
10.- Marelen Castillo, the "perfect unknown" is his vice-presidential candidate.
Castillo is from Cali, is an industrial engineer from the Universidad Autónoma de Occidente and has a master's degree in Business Administration and Management, she has never held political office.
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