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Rodolfo Hernández: a Colombian Trump?

rodolfo hernández
Photo: National Civil Registry Office

By Irma Gallo. Global Exchange - Peninsula 360 Press

Popularly known as "the engineer" (that is his profession), businessman and politician Rodolfo Hernández will compete for the presidency of Colombia against center-left candidate Gustavo Petro in the second round of the elections to be held on June 19.

Besides having an open file by the Attorney General's Office for a possible fraud known as the Vitalogic case, for 336 million Colombian pesos, the engineer, who sells himself as the candidate close to the people by supposedly distancing himself from the Uribism represented by Federico Gutiérrez, "Fico", the official candidate who came in third place in the first round, has a reputation of misogynist and violent, like the former president of the United States, Donald Trump.

Alarm bells began to ring when the candidate of the League of Anti-Corruption Rulers stated that Venezuelan women are "a factory for making poor children", a very serious statement when, according to the Regional Inter-agency Coordination Platform for Refugees and Migrants from VenezuelaAs of May 2022, there are 1,842,390 Venezuelan refugees in Colombia. 

The same reaction to his misogyny occurred when he said that "it is better for women to support from home", and that "when they are in the government, people do not like it". In a radio interview he reiterated that ?the ideal would be for women to dedicate themselves to raising children?

Even more serious is what he was heard to say on a video about femicide:

?here, in order to solve problems, the government invents crimes, that is what I see. For example, I understand that homicide, since the Penal Code has been in force, has been a crime. (sic). And then here, a politician decided to make a banner of feminicide, which is a homicide of a woman and introduced the law, and the law passed (...) she became a senator with this story. After what the senator who came out with the story of homicide and turned it into feminicide, did the violence and the violent attack that led to the death of the woman end? No, it is not over. It is still the same or worse?

From the dissemination of the video, the Hashtag #ElFeminicidioSiExiste was created, which Twitter users, especially women, are using to remind the candidate.

The video in question is not dated. However, it would seem that shielded by the figure of the candidate close to the people, who says "things as they are", neither he nor his advisors (if he has them and if he listens to them) have noticed the seriousness of his statements.

The vice-presidential candidate for Pacto Histórico, environmental activist Francia Márquez, said in a radio program that Rodolfo Hernandez is a misogynist ?who does not recognize the feminicide in this country, who does not recognize that women are murdered every day in this country; that girls are raped? 

On the other hand, his running mate, the vice presidential candidate for the League of Anticorruption Rulers, Marelen Castillo, came out in his defense; she made the typical justification that the engineer's statements were "taken out of context", and also affirmed that "there are many women in his campaign and that his wife Socorro is the one who manages his company".

When he was mayor of Bucaramanga, Hernandez also made a name for himself as a violent man when he threw a punch at councilman Jhon Claro. in front of the cameras. As a result, the Attorney General's Office removed him from office for three months.

Like Trump, and before him former Mexican President Vicente Fox, Rodolfo Hernandez does not mind expressing himself publicly with terms that range from the supposedly "colloquial" to the offensive, even to vulgarity.

Regarding Venezuelans seeking refuge in Colombia, in 2017 he said that those arriving in Bucaramanga were "beggars, prostitution and the unemployed" but that it was "touching" to receive them. "We can not catch them with a lead, it will be their turn to beg," he said. Likewise, before punching councilman Jhon Claro in the face, he called him "son of a bitch".

Although he comes from a working class family, the millionaire businessman -just like Donald Trump- sees the poor as a juicy business opportunity: through his construction company he sold social interest houses to the poor in 100 monthly installments which they had to pay directly to him. With the slogan that businessmen are jewels that the country has to take care of, he also said that "the best business in the world is to have poor people with consumption capacity, because the poor consume all the money".

Paradoxically, it is the poor who could carry him to the presidency of Colombia in the second round of the elections.

You may be interested in: Rodolfo Hernandez, the candidate who took Colombia's elections by surprise

Irma Gallo
Irma Gallo
She is a reporter and writer. In addition to Península 360 Press, he has collaborated with Letras Libres, Magazine of the University of Mexico, Lee Más Gandhi Magazine, Gatopardo, Este País Magazine, Sin Embargo, El Universal, Newsweek en Español. His most recent book is When the Sky Turns Orange. Being a woman in Mexico (UANL/VF Agencia Literaria, 2020).

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