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2021-09-01T07:33:09.890Z


Alejandro Gaviria's candidacy opens the field to the future of Colombia Alejandro Gaviria, in a 2019 file photo.Juan Carlos Zapata The presidential campaign of next year already covers practically the entire agenda of the South American country after months of social upheaval. Faced with this scenario, the candidacy of Alejandro Gaviria, 55, opens the electoral struggle by incorporating an unforeseen name. A brilliant academic, liberal in economics and progressive id


Alejandro Gaviria, in a 2019 file photo.Juan Carlos Zapata

The presidential campaign of next year already covers practically the entire agenda of the South American country after months of social upheaval.

Faced with this scenario, the candidacy of Alejandro Gaviria, 55, opens the electoral struggle by incorporating an unforeseen name.

A brilliant academic, liberal in economics and progressive ideas in the social sphere, his decision to run for the presidency widens a battlefield polarized up to now by the candidate most to the left, Gustavo Petro, and the orbit of the influential and Mercurial former president Álvaro Uribe, who has not yet opted for any candidate.

In just a few days, the mere emergence of Gaviria has returned the gaze to the temperate zones of the electorate and escapes from routine confrontation.

Its mere appearance deserves a positive assessment.

More information

  • Alejandro Gaviria: "I am the candidate capable of uniting those who think differently in Colombia"

The country needs the political debate to overcome entrenched dialectics and open its doors to other agendas and problems that until now have hardly been addressed.

In a country where the war and the subsequent peace agreement with the FARC have decided the fate of the last three presidents, Gaviria's candidacy represents a possibility of looking to the future with a different air and guaranteeing once and for all the development of what agreed.

In his favor, Gaviria has his own career as Minister of Health during the Government of Juan Manuel Santos (2010-2018). At that stage, he endorsed his progressive credentials by fighting for the control of drug prices, which pitted him against pharmaceutical companies, or with the suspension of glyphosate sprays, a measure that the current Executive of Iván Duque has tried to reverse. . He also led the fight to decriminalize the use of drugs and overcome the prohibitionist paradigm, not only with words, but with deeds, by regulating the medical marijuana industry, which he himself resorted to during the lymphatic cancer he suffered.Promoting the right to a dignified death and facilitating the voluntary interruption of pregnancy are two other important letters of introduction that ratify their confrontation with a society with strong conservative tendencies such as Colombia.

The appearance of Gaviria is oxygenating but it is also a still precarious candidacy. Unlike Petro, who ranks first in all bets, Gaviria barely has penetration among the popular classes and is practically unknown in many parts of the country. To advance, he will have to demonstrate his mettle in a diverse and uneven geography that has nothing to do with the Bogota elites who have greeted him. Furthermore, it will need a party structure that it now lacks. The nods exchanged with sectors such as New Liberalism or the Green Party are positive but are still far from putting together a presidential race. Gaviria should, in any case, flee from the clientelistic networks that have characterized Colombian parties in their recent history.If the new candidate has any strength, it is his speech for the future and his capacity for renewal. It would be a mistake to throw this baggage overboard and accommodate the demands of unhealthy structures.


Source: elparis

All news articles on 2021-09-01

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