“The only home in which the Colombian woman does not rule is the Casa de Nariño and that is going to change.” Paloma Valencia embodies this longing on behalf of the traditional right. Born in 1978 in Popayán, southeast of Bogotá, She is the granddaughter of former president Guillermo León Valencia, who governed in the early 60s, when the extended cycle of political violence began. But she, a lawyer, philosopher and senator since 2014, feels more comfortable with the legacy of another former head of state, Álvaro Uribe. “It has given wings to all my ideashas helped me become the leader that I am.”
Valencia is, therefore, the smiling face of Uribist renewal. This open-hearted kindness is not at odds with political harshness. “They tested these models in Cuba and Venezuela, and the result was the expulsion of its citizens,” alerted the voters of Iván Cepeda, the candidate who tries to prolong the administration of Gustavo Petro. There was a time, however, when, despite being from Valencia and belonging to the cream of a very wealthy family, he had greater sympathies with the ideas that he now vehemently abhors. In her days as an aspiring philosopher she wrote a thesis on “The pain of living: pain, suicide and death; reflections on the thought of Schopenhauer.” Its director was the left-wing philosopher Sergio de Zubiría. The world, at that time, caused him discomfort and restlessness, because, among other things, it was very unequal. She is no longer the same person who could write fiery words in favor of a better distribution of the loaves and fishes. “It will be up to the reader to define the change as legitimate and natural. which, 23 years later, expresses the version of Paloma Valencia as the presidential candidate of a party closed to defend traditional values, the Catholic religion, the prohibition of euthanasia and the exploitation, to the last consequences, of natural resources,” said the magazine Changewhen reviewing the distance between that Paloma and that of a conservative present.
The candidate of the Democratic Center has found a strong competitor on her rightAbelardo de la Espriella, capable of stealing part of an electorate that, under other circumstances, would have opted for her. Valencia still believes that Uribe’s symbolic weight can help her advance to the second round. However, it is considered the only one in a position to generate greater confidence in investors based on a tax reduction, to be more effective in social spending and social subsidies aimed at older adults and women heads of household. He wants to promote housing construction programs and, above all, confront the problems of violence with the same program of his mentor at the beginning of this century. Valencia wants to replace Petro’s discussed “Total Peace” policy with a “total security” scheme that allows strengthening the activity of the Armed Forces and the Police. It also aims to restore political alignment and military cooperation with the United States.
To differentiate herself from her main rival in this instance, De la Espriella, she highlights the political capital that the lawyer lacks: legislative experience and belonging to a party established in Colombia due to the weight of historical leadership. “I am going to vote for this formula because Colombia needs less ambiguity and more conviction. Less emotional populism and more defense of institutions. Less improvisation and more character,” announced executive Sylvia Escovar in a column published this week in the Bogotá newspaper The Time. And he will do it because “I have thought that extremes lead to violence, discrimination, ideological blindness. This Sunday, Valencia will test its confidence not only in that common sense closer to the center-right and, also, in the roots of the figure of Uribe in a captive electorate that seems to prefer more radical solutions to avoid Cepeda’s victory.
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