Gustavo Petro and Rodolfo Hernández, to the second round in Colombia

Gustavo Petro and Rodolfo Hernández (Credit: Getty Images)

(CNN Spanish) -- 

In what was a surprising result for many, the independent candidate Rodolfo Hernández reached the second round in the elections in Colombia, along with the favorite in the polls, Gustavo Petro.

Petro had led the polls for practically the entire year, especially since the March 13 consultations.

However, Hernández took off in the last stretch of the campaign, beating Sergio's candidate Sergio Fajardo and closing in on right-wing candidate Federico "Fico" Gutiérrez.

But the result of this Sunday, May 29, extended the predicted rise of Hernández, a controversial candidate whose flag is the fight against corruption but with investigations in the Prosecutor's Office and the Attorney General's Office against him.

The second round will take place on Sunday, June 19.

Despite gathering a majority of the votes, Gustavo Petro failed to win in the first round, and this result could make the second round tighter.

Hernández could collect a good part of the votes of the right in Colombia, as well as those who oppose Gustavo Petro, a politician who arouses as much hate as love in a very polarized country.

Rodolfo Hernández received support at the end of the campaign from Íngrid Betancourt, who started in the Coalición Centro Esperanza, then launched herself on her own and finally gave up her aspiration.

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It remains to be defined whether the other candidates officially support Petro or Hernández, or whether they leave their voters free to choose.

In the case of Fico Gutiérrez, his campaign was backed by the big traditional parties, the Liberal and the Conservative, and other important forces such as the Partido de la U and the Cambio Radical party, as well as tacitly by the current governing party, the Centro Democratic.

SPECIAL: ELECTIONS IN COLOMBIA

Rodolfo Hernández, the Colombian "Trump"

Rodolfo Hernández, 77, obtained about 28% of the votes, according to the report of 96% of the tables.

He participated in few debates and is considered an anti-establishment political figure.

Hernández aspires to the presidency for the League of Governors Anti-Corruption movement.

Until the last weeks of the campaign, Rodolfo Hernández was behind Fico Gutiérrez in the polls, but the latest polls showed that his intention to vote skyrocketed and he could reach the second round, as it happened.

Hernández (Piedecuesta, Santander, 1945) is a businessman from the Santander region, in northeastern Colombia.

He worked as a construction businessman, with which he amassed his fortune, and after a controversial but popular stint as mayor of Bucaramanga —a city of some 500,000 inhabitants in northeastern Colombia—, he decided to jump into the national arena as presidential candidate with a platform based on the fight against corruption.

Rodolfo Hernández expresses himself in a very colloquial way and often with rudeness.

He is informal and seeks to appear authentic: an interview with CNN en Español via virtual was granted in his pajamas.

Those who criticize him say that he likes to appear, to show himself.

"He's a figurative narcissist and he's already done it," adds Acelas.

"He has created here what in political theory has been called alternative facts: he makes it appear that he was a successful ruler —which he was not— who transformed the city... and a fiction is created very well along the lines of (Donald) Trump", believing himself to be a "redeemer leader", says Acelas.

He has made controversial statements, such as not knowing what or where one of the departments of Colombia is ("Vichada? What is that?", he said in a video that went viral).

"What he has created is a media fiction that he is an 

 because he comes from outside politics. He is a right-wing populist: he also plays at being like Donald Trump," says Acelas, who points to his fortune and his rhetoric incendiary to compare him with the former president of the United States.

Hernández has a scandal of alleged corruption on his back, in which he has declared himself innocent.

This is the case of Vitalogic in which the Prosecutor's Office formally accused him in May 2021 for entering into a consulting contract with alleged irregularities to "implement new technologies for waste management in the El Carrasco landfill."

Hernández insists that "one peso" has never been stolen.

In April 2022, in an evidentiary hearing of the trial, Hernández did not accept charges such as ideological falsehood, contract without compliance with legal requirements and improper interest in entering into contracts, according to the Prosecutor's Office.

The case is still ongoing.

READ MORE ABOUT RODOLFO HERNÁNDEZ

Gustavo Petro, the leader of the left who reaches the second round with an unexpected rival

Gustavo Petro (born in 1960 in Ciénaga de Oro, Córdoba, in northern Colombia) obtained 40% of the votes in the first round.

The candidate of the Historical Pact, Petro has the challenge of leaving behind the image of his opponents of being a leader of recalcitrant ideas and attitudes, and trying to unite the progressive sectors to govern the country.

In his third attempt to reach the most important position in Colombia, Gustavo Petro carries the burden of having been a member of a guerrilla group that led to one of the worst tragedies in the country's history, the seizure of the Palace of Justice (despite of not having participated directly), but at the same time of being one of the most important political leaders in the recent history of the Latin American nation.

Petro defines himself as a "progressive" leftist leader in a highly traditional and right-wing country.

He proposes making the economy "revolve around life", betting on natural wealth and environmental protection, as well as "deepen democracy", and make an economic structure "based on production and not on extraction" , as he said in an interview with CNN in July 2021.

Petro, who has been identified as the counterpart to the right and Uribismo in Colombia, will now face a candidate who could receive voters from other political spectrums.

READ MORE FROM PETRO

• The 5 key proposals of Gustavo Petro to be president of Colombia

With information from Melissa Velásquez of CNN en Español. 

Elections ColombiaGustavo PetroRodolfo Hernández