Rodolfo Hernández: "I want Petro to know how to lead the country and be faithful to his speech against corruption"

Rodolfo Hernández collapsed on his way to achieve the presidency of Colombia.

In his first attempt to reach the House of Nariño, he obtained more than 10.5 million votes.

They didn't hit him.

TikTok was not enough for him.

The social networks that served him last May 29 to go to the second round were not enough this time.

With a short video message, the 77-year-old businessman unhesitatingly accepted his defeat and congratulated Gustavo Petro.

“I accept the result as it should be if we want our institutions to be strong.

I sincerely hope that the decision is beneficial,” said Hernández, who was not seen in public during the day.

“I wish Petro that he knows how to lead the country, that he is faithful in his speech against corruption and that he does not disappoint those who trusted him,”

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The presidential second round was a downhill road for Hernández.

Aged 77, he refused to participate in any debate with his contender Gustavo Petro, even though a court ordered it, he also avoided being in the public square because he feared being assassinated.

His strategy of hiding and only speaking in the spaces where he felt safe did not work for the engineer, as everyone knows him.

Outside his campaign headquarters, which he called Casa Nariño, like the presidential palace, the atmosphere was similar to that experienced when Atlético Bucaramanga plays, accustomed to defeat.

Armando Calderón followed the bulletins from the Registrar's Office by means of a battery-powered radio that he carried on his bicycle.

At the gates of Hernández's headquarters, in the Bolarquí neighborhood, in Bucaramanga.

"They left us like goats, with long jaws, bored," he said.

He never saw his candidate in person.

Hernández took refuge behind a computer until the end.

“I voted for him because I feel that Santander is always ignored.

If one looks at the highways and the development of other regions, he realizes that each president pulls for his side.

With a man from Santander we were finally going to have an opportunity”.

Calderón, 63, is disappointed that he will not be able to see “the engineer” in the Casa de Nariño, but he says he feels calm.

“I don't think we are going to become like Venezuela.

That's just a story."

The former mayor of Bucaramanga registered his candidacy for the political movement League of Anticorruption Governors, of which he is a leader, and from there he raised the flags of the fight against the "robadera", which became a common phrase in his speech, in which little delved into other topics.

Until this Sunday, little was known about his government plans because his announcements changed as the campaign progressed and it was always difficult to know what his real positions were regarding crucial issues on the country's agenda.

The unknown Rodolfo Hernández remained until the end.

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His defeat is also the defeat of the establishment because although the former mayor of Bucaramanga launched himself into the presidential race without the support of a traditional political party, after the first round all the sectors that have historically opposed the left joined his campaign.

"I receive everyone's votes," he said when his name began to be linked to Uribismo, which was left without a candidate after the failure of Federico Gutiérrez.

Rodolfo Hernández received the antipetrista vote without having to do anything.

It was enough for him to be the one who competed for the Presidency with Gustavo Petro to get the support of broad business sectors and political clans.

Even so, he did not achieve majorities among the citizens, who demand a change that closes the gaps that have made Colombia one of the most unequal countries in the region.

The candidate who sold himself as an 'outsider', and who broke the political scene by being foul-mouthed and avoiding the press, did not win the Presidency, but will occupy a seat in Congress because the law determines so.

His future, however, will be determined by what happens with the trial that he will have to face next July 21 for alleged acts of corruption during his Mayor's office.

The millionaire Hernández must answer for the crime of undue interest in entering into contracts in a case involving one of his children.

Although the former president of Bucaramanga has denied having committed any crime and has excused himself that "it was a trap" and says that he is not afraid of the law, the evidence that compromises him has been sufficient for the authorities to have charged him.

Rodolfo Hernández was confident that he would get 15 million votes this Sunday.

He always assured that his aspiration did not need anyone else, apart from him, and the entire campaign revolved around him.

But the image of him also played against him.

The millionaire builder who said he wanted to help the poor and "end politicking", was the same one who laughed not at one, but at several images of him flaunting his money, in his vacation home or on a yacht in Miami .

His austerity speech remained in words and he failed to convince the majority of Colombians, fed up with unfulfilled promises and who, above all, demand a more just and equal society, where everyone fits.

A supporter rolls up a poster with presidential candidate Rodolfo Hernández one day before the country's presidential runoff, Bucaramanga, on June 18, 2022. IVAN VALENCIA (AP)