Colombian President Iván Duque, during an interview with EL PAÍS at the Nariño Palace in Bogotá on May 30, 2021.Camilo Rozo
In Colombia, each government tries to have a brand or seal that lasts over time. For example, Álvaro Uribe is characterized with security. To Juan Manuel Santos with peace and the same happens with local and regional administrations. This time, the brand of the National Government does not yet exist or, at least, it is not clear. Iván Duque, a young president who represents a far-right party, has not managed to build, after three years of government and lack of one, a country model, a horizon to walk towards or, at least, a brand that identifies him .
Currently, Colombia is mired in one of the worst crises in its recent history.
A socioeconomic crisis where the dramatic fact is that millions of people cannot eat three times a day.
A security crisis, in which criminal organizations grow exponentially in number of people and in territorial takeover, a political, migratory and social crisis.
At this rate, Iván Duque will deliver in a year, on August 7, a country in tatters.
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The question is why Uribism and, in particular, Iván Duque led the country to this crisis. The answer is not easy and although the pandemic played an important role as a catalyst for the deteriorating situation, it is also true that since 2019 the situation had been damaging in all aspects. There are several answers to the question, but four would be worth mentioning.
On the one hand, uribismo read the reality of Colombia in 2018 as it did in 2002, they did not understand that the country had changed. This reading took place in matters of security, where they did not understand that the FARC no longer existed, and they fought security phenomena as one fought a guerrilla group. Security quickly deteriorated with moments in which Uribe members seemed to long for the FARC to revive to recreate the ghosts of the past. In addition, they had an ideological reading of security and the deterioration was more than notorious. In political matters, the situation was similar, the Uribistas believed that the peace process was smoke and speeches, they also read the plans and projects of peace with an ideological bias and, in the end, they did not implement.The peace process was designed to mitigate the structural causes of violence in Colombia, to the extent that these structural causes were not impacted, quickly, in a part of the territory a new cycle of violence was formed or developed. Today, regions like the Colombian Pacific are in the middle of a true civil war.
Second, the way to rule was through creating ghosts that few believed. The concepts of Castro-Chavism, neo-communism and the ultra-left were the preferred ones to catalog the opposition to Duque. In fact, the social protest of 2019 and the most recent one in April and May 2021 was treated as a security issue. In other words, the president does not seem to see that millions of Colombians endure hunger. In the end, since the FARC does not exist, few believe their ghost speeches. Rather, he looks like a president disconnected from the reality of the street.
Third, in the face of the popularity crisis, President Duque, instead of changing, clung to the old political class to navigate the last stage of the Government.
This, as expected, impacted on the image of the Administration and deteriorated the government coalition as a good part of the citizens see them as corrupt politicians.
Finally, the president does not dialogue with the social and political sectors of the country.
He does not send messages to young people, teachers, or farmers;
his speeches are only addressed to the public force, the most powerful business community and the old politicians.
It is as if he did not know 90% of the population or, as even some of his followers say, as if he lived on the moon.
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