The moderate José Antonio Ocampo is Petro's bet to lead the economic area

Economist José Antonio Ocampo, during an interview in 2017. Christopher Goodney (Bloomberg)

Gustavo Petro, 48 hours before the polls open, has announced that if he becomes president, he will entrust the management of the economy to José Antonio Ocampo, a renowned professor at Columbia University and former executive secretary of the United Nations arm. Nations for the development of Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).

Ocampo agrees with Petro on the need to change the extractivist model that has been operating in Latin America for centuries.

The leftist candidate, leader in the polls, always talks about creating an anti-oil front, something in which he agrees with Gabriel Boric, the president of Chile.

Four years ago, Petro and Fajardo were very close in number of votes, but now the advantage of the former is very wide.

The moderate candidate's options, if the polls do not lie, are remote.

The ex-guerrilla is counting on incorporating into his movement a good number of characters from the center, academics and intellectuals who tend to the left.

One case could be that of the former rector of the Andes Alejandro Gaviria.

Another, that of Ocampo.

"I would like him to be with us," Petro said on W Radio this Friday.

“I would like to build an economic team there.

José Antonio has a lot of prestige.

And he is close in his economic thinking to what we have proposed ”.

The problem is that Ocampo, who has already served as finance minister, is a close adviser to Sergio Fajardo, the center's candidate.

The economist took advantage of the occasion to reiterate that his loyalties are with Fajardo and invite people to vote for him this Sunday.

“He is the best candidate and we built the best program.

He would be the best President of Colombia”, he wrote on his Twitter account.

Facing today's debates, I reiterate that my candidate is Sergio Fajardo.

Vote on Sunday for him.

He is the best candidate and we built the best program.

He would be the best President of Colombia @sergio_fajardo pic.twitter.com/OQoOuHxuyx

– Jose Antonio Ocampo (@JoseA_Ocampo) May 27, 2022

In the radio program in which he participated, Petro was questioned for his criticism in the past of the Banco de la República, the one in charge of issuing and controlling the country's monetary movements without government intervention.

Ocampo is a defender of the political independence of the institution.

He does not believe that they will collide in this aspect: “The independence of the Banco de la República does not mean the ban on the president (...).

In this there is a link between the Government and the Bank.

The link is the Minister of Finance, which is not that he goes there and gets all the members of the board to vote in favor, but rather it is a dialogue between two independent institutions but they have to be coordinated.

He sometimes he makes it, and sometimes he doesn't."

The most talented figures of the Colombian center will have to make a decision after Sunday.

If Petro wins in the first round (a difficult possibility according to the polls), some of them will be called to form part of the new government.

In the event that there is a second round, they must take sides with Petro or whoever faces him.

According to the most recent polls, those with the most options are Fico Gutiérrez, the right-wing candidate, or the anti-system Rodolfo Hernández, a 77-year-old businessman who wields the sword of anti-corruption.

"The comeback" that Fajardo has proposed seems unlikely.

Four years ago, the former governor of Antioquia did not get wet, did not mobilize his electorate anywhere, and said that he went to see whales in the decisive stage.

Petro was also asked about the Armed Forces.

The candidate, who as a young man was tortured by the military for his membership in the M-19, has a very tense relationship with the military world.

"There has to be leadership over the troops," he explained about his hypothetical defense minister.

“Sometimes they become figureheads.

It is believed that by talking hard and such they become military and police (the ministers) and that is not true”.

He did not want to give any specific name of who could be in charge, as he did with Ocampo, but he spoke of reforming the police, which now depends on the Ministry of Defense.

“We want to demilitarize the police as such, remove it from Defense and put in a Ministry of Security and Peace.

The police should be a body specialized in the resolution of peaceful conflicts.

The police would do better if they accept the constitutional mandate that they are a civil force and that by Constitution they have to defend the rights and freedoms of the citizenry,” he explained.

This debate is old.

In a country that has lived in a context of war against guerrillas and paramilitaries, the mentality of the armed forces is one of combat and action.

In fact, with this way of looking at things, it is explained that last year during the protests that ran throughout the country, more than 50 demonstrators were killed.

The name of Ricardo Díaz, one of the soldiers who commanded Operación Jaque, the well-executed operation by which Ingrid Betancourt was released, sounds familiar for this task.

"Here I am silent," Petro said about it.

He wanted to deny some myths, according to him, that there are about his relationship with the forces of order: “It has been handled that they do not want me and it is cart.

Some people do want me in there.”

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