Colombian president expects voters to reject Venezuela model

Bloomberg

Colombian voters will reject the socialist “Venezuelan model” when they go to the polls in just more than two weeks to decide between the two candidates who’ve qualified for the nation’s runoff election, the outgoing president predicted.
“In this election, people are going to go to the polls and definitely say ‘no’ to the Venezuelan model that some want to apply in our country,” Ivan Duque, who is term-limited and polls show to be deeply unpopular, said in an interview at the Colombian ambassador’s residence in Washington.
“I clearly believe that what we have been able to create — what we have been able to implement in Colombia in major policies — cannot be derailed easily.
If someone tries to derail what is going forward in a positive way, I think the Colombian people will definitely have a lot of unrest with this.”
Duque didn’t identify specific candidates, saying that he’s not allowed to participate in politics as the departing executive. But left-wing senator Gustavo Petro, 62, is running on a platform that centres on a radical shift in the nation’s economy.
He wants to phase out production of oil and coal, commodities that account for half of Colombia’s exports and are set to help make the nation the fastest-growing major economy in the Americas this year, according to the International Monetary Fund.
Petro also wants to increase import tariffs to protect local production, and reform the pension and health-care system. All of those initiatives have investors on edge regarding the South American nation, which is alone among the region’s biggest countries in never having elected a leftist.
Duque, 45, who previously served as an official at the
Inter-American Development Bank, beat Petro to win election in 2018.
In the June 19 runoff vote, Petro is facing Rodolfo Hernandez, an outsider businessman and former mayor of a provincial city who has run his campaign almost exclusively on a flagship fight against corruption, which he claims is the source of the problems the Andean nation faces.
The 77-year-old construction magnate known for his abrasive style is now the favorite to be Colombia’s next president.
The first-round vote saw the elimination of conservative Federico “Fico” Gutierrez, who was backed by Duque’s party and other traditional parties.
Most analysts interpreted the result as a rejection of the establishment and the current administration that saw its approval plummet on a failed attempt to raise taxes that sparked nationwide unrest.