Preparations for Sunday’s presidential elections in Colombia, at a voting center in Bogotá, this Friday. Photo: AP
Colombia’s presidential campaign has reached its final stage in the men’s career where the lone woman, Ingrid Betancourt, gave up before reaching the finish line, where three white candidates left. very few gender issues on the agenda.
This fact was proved by the latest outburst of one of the candidates, the populist Rodolfo Hernández, who was third in the polls and threatened to enter the second round against favorite Gustavo Petro (left).
“It’s good that she makes the comments and supports from home. The woman involved in the government, people don’t want,” he said on a musical radio station “Kiss me.”
The words that went viral, however, are partially removed from context, as the candidate, a tycoon and engineer mayor of Bucaramanga (a medium -sized city), refers to the role of his wife, Socorro Oliveros, as possibly the first lady. and He made sure he didn’t want to appear in public and, moreover, the voters would choose him and he wouldn’t, so having an unelected position was a “spending of money on the people.”
Brochures of Colombian presidential candidate Gustavo Petro, on a street in Medellín. Photo: AFP
There is no gender agenda
However, despite these controversies, the measures to address machismo, gender inequality and sexist violence have become large absent in dozens of debates held by candidates.
“The question is very fast and the answer is very fast”, the director of the Weekly magazine Vicky Dávila in the debate on Monday: “Is politics in Colombia sexist? Why are there no women among the presidential candidates?”
Just four minutes in total were the responses of the three candidates who participated, Petro, right -wing Federico “Fico” Gutiérrez (who was second in the polls) and center candidate Sergio Fajardo.
Although “Fico” Gutiérrez made sure that there was no machismo and he did not believe that “the issue of parity law, because it is touching, no, it is because of the abilities of women”, despite the fact that, although he itself ensures that there are empowered women, not in the electoral contest.
Candidates Gustavo Petro, Gustavo Petro, Federico Gutierrez, Sergio Fajardo and Rodolfo Hernandez. Photo: AFP
Proposals to end more than 600 femicides were not discussed occurred last year, according to organizations, or to match a man’s 13% more income on average than a woman in Colombia or to reduce women’s unemployment, with nearly 90,000 more women with no more work than men.
The running mates
To alleviate this lack of inclusion and the fact that they are all white men, there are “seconds”, whether they are the vice president’s formulas, where Hernández and Petro are the only women, or their partners ( or no one, in the case of “Fico”).
Petro, who has been criticized on numerous occasions by feminists around her and has already experienced separation from her former vice-presidential partner in 2018, Ángela María Robledo, has restored her strength to female voters by choosing to fellow Afro-Colombian Francia Márquez of the formula.
From low backgrounds, with experience in social struggle and a victim of conflict, Márquez knows how to defend many of the discriminations faced by women every day, and especially black women are exposed.
“Like many Colombian women, sadly because I have no sexual and reproductive education, I got pregnant at the age of 16,” she said at the end of the campaign on Sunday, referring to a drama that affects one in five young people. in Colombia.
Gustavo Petro and his running mate, Francia Márquez, at an event in March. Photo: EFE
However, in some of the revelations Petro made to his possible team if he were in charge, the women were noticeable in their absence.
The former mayor of Bogotá announced on Friday in an interview with W Radio that he wants the average José Antonio Ocampo, who heads the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), to be finance minister.
A few days ago he spoke about former magistrate Iván Velásquez, who heads the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG), to direct a commission requested from the UN to investigate corruption crimes.
Hernández also chose a woman, university professor Marelen Castillo, as his aide, while “Fico” and Sergio Fajardo named the men.
The latter, a centrist candidate who was only one of those who showed himself fully open to abortion legislation before it was decriminalized at the beginning of this year by the Constitutional Court, she also assured in the debate last Monday that: “I am lucky to have a woman, I believe the smartest woman in public life, María Ángela Holguín” , referring to the former foreign minister and his current partner.
Generational gap
Some 8 million registered voters this Sunday they are still young, while the four main candidates have an average of 62 years, Gutiérrez is the youngest with 47.
While Petro, despite his 61 years, knows how to collect the discontent of young people seen on the streets last year by the national strike, Hernández, at his 76 years, also seems to have created anger. in a youth sector.
Young people organized themselves in “rodolfist” caravans to mobilize votes for this populist candidate despite the fact that he barely campaigned and also felt appeal to the videos being he uploads to Instagram and TikTok, remaking video games and using reggaeton and guaracha remixes.
EFE
CB
Source: Clarin
