“This is not a doll’s game, this is politics.“. At 47 years old, Abelardo de la Espriellaseems to respond to some coordinates of the time: outsider of far right that owes its electoral competitiveness to social networks and outbursts. His emergence had a revulsive effect on the Colombian political scene. to the point of altering it in a few months. Criminal law was the source of his rise. One of those who knocked on the door of his office demanding services was Alex Saab, a businessman who has just been extradited to the United States for his financial relations with Nicolás Maduro. He also defended a fraudster, David Murcia, whose scam shook Colombia years ago. Thanks to his varied clientele he became a millionaire. His worship of money was both useful: He put together a movement, Defenders of the Homeland, and has financed it with his lush bank account.
The speech of self made man and patriotic harangues, which include the military salute and the invocations to heaven of someone who previously considered himself an atheistbut above all their heavy-handed and relentless program, they seek to convince this Sunday, in the second round of the presidential elections in Colombia, part of a conservative electorate that, suddenly, found a much more daring figure than that of Álvaro Uribe. for the magazine Change His program is “a mix of technology, judicial persecution and concentration of capabilities in the presidency.” Espriella was the candidate with the most votes in the first round: almost 44% of the votes, against 40.9% of the leftist Iván Cepeda.
He likes to be called “the Tiger”, a feline analogy that suggests the willingness to strike out. Security policies and economic adjustment à la Javier Milei go hand in hand. It is at your discretion ““manage scarcity to unleash abundance”. The lawyer wants to fumigate the areas planted with coca y reduce the statealthough 70,000 employees are left on the streets. The predilection for those who have the most has been camouflaged in his speeches with his defense of deregulation. He wants the rich like him to pay less taxes, which does not inhibit him from ensuring that he has decided to fight for the presidency to materialize “the miracle of never”, to whom he promises to “save” them from crime, corruption and drug trafficking. He has convinced part of society that if he reaches the Nariño Palace the country will grow 7% annually and will be able to promote the industrialization of the countryside, the oil sector and extractive mining. “The State does not create wealth, the State creates conditions for us businessmen to create wealth.” He “us” it is not hidden. If in economics and in exasperated confrontation one looks in the mirror of Javier Mileyto defeat criminal groups wants to be the Colombian emulation of Nayib Bukele and, like the Salvadoran, build megaprisons.
““Money is like pretty women, if you walk away it will chase you.” De la Espriella is often criticized for his misogyny and a consummate machismo. During an interview he assured that he had added votes “from the female electorate” for the size of your genitals. He even asked the interviewer, Laura Rodríguez, to zoom in on a photograph in which, according to the candidate, this could be clearly seen. The scene was accompanied by expressions such as “my love”, “honey”, “don’t be shy” and “what else do you see??”. The lawyer believes that this way of acting in public is his asset. Alejandra Ortiz Molano, columnist for The Spectatorwhich for the far-right “defiant and sexualized masculinity also functions as a strategy of emotional connection with certain sectors of the electorate.” And that is why “a narrative has been consolidated where feminism and gender equality are presented as threats.”
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