Alejandro Gaviria, Minister of Health and Social Protection of Colombia Herminso Ruiz / MinSalud
The leap into the arena of academic Alejandro Gaviria as a candidate for the presidency of Colombia in 2022 has already begun to move Colombian politics and its main protagonist, Gustavo Petro. A few hours after the announcement, the leftist Petro acknowledged that "many" of the points that Gaviria presented in his ideology are close to his political proposal. "I think there is a lack of depth in the transition due to climate change, in the change in the health model and the relevance of an agrarian reform," he said on Twitter.
Despite this response, which was interpreted as an opening to the political debate on ideas, in the bubble of Colombian social networks, attacks and false news against the former rector of the University of Los Andes, who represents progressive ideas and could dispute him, worsened. votes to the left that Petro embodies. From accusations of a technocrat and "more of the same" or of being the underground representative of Álvaro Uribe to a
Santista
- for having been Juan Manuel Santos' Minister of Health - and pro-abortion and marijuana, for his revolutionary positions in a conservative country.
Petro himself called it neoliberal.
"Therefore the liberal proposal of Alejandro Gaviria fails to overcome neoliberalism and hence his silences on these issues," wrote Petro, although in the same message he left an open door.
"The possibility of meeting between progressivism and liberalism focuses on liberalism being able to overcome neoliberalism," added the candidate who leads the polls one year before the elections.
Petro had recently invited Gaviria to be part of what he has called the Historical Pact, but the former rector rejected it.
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Alejandro Gaviria will present himself by signatures, initially without a party, but there is already talk that he will end up linked to the resurrected New Liberalism, the movement of Luis Carlos Galán, assassinated in 1989 when he was a presidential candidate. Juan Manuel Galán, one of the sons of the immolated politician, welcomed Gaviria and pointed out that he will bring height to the competition, something repeated throughout the day in the country. "I am pleased with the arrival, not only of a competitor, but of an ally in the construction of a new drug policy aimed at regulation," he said.
Representatives of the so-called political center also celebrated the academic's aspiration. "Alejandro Gaviria represents me," said Congresswoman Juanita Goebertus, who invited volunteers to collect signatures. The arrival of Gaviria to the political board will place greater demands on Sergio Fajardo, the main face of the center. The former mayor of Medellín did not comment on Gaviria's candidacy so far. This Friday, the Attorney General's Office announced that it will accuse Fajardo before the Supreme Court of Justice for alleged irregularities in a debt substitution contract eight years ago, when he was governor of the department of Antioquia. “Never in my life have I committed a crime. This is how I will demonstrate to the Court that it is the natural setting to defend myself, ”he assured.
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Reactions have been across the political spectrum.
"It is useful to our democracy and to citizens that there are good options," said former Bogotá mayor Enrique Peñalosa.
He is not the only one who believes that the arrival of an academic can raise the height of the political debate.
"I have no doubt that his ideas will serve to enrich the contest," said Carlos Fernando Galán, son of Luis Carlos Galán and current Bogotá councilor.
There is still a year to go before the elections and a long time to know the channels that the debate takes, but issues such as climate change, civil rights or health could be put at the center of the discussion in a country where the discussion was always monopolized by the armed conflict.
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