00:01Let's stay in Colombia in this final stretch ahead of the May 31st. Important elections are going to be held
00:07in Colombia.
00:08Where citizens are going to decide the future for the next four years.
00:11And to learn more and to analyze more about the importance of this electoral date,
00:15let's welcome David Lopez, international analyst and also an expert on human rights issues.
00:20Welcome, David, to From the South once more.
00:23Yeah, thank you. Thank you very much for this space and for the important channel you have.
00:30David, as a first question, we are just like barely a couple of days away from this electoral date on
00:35May 31st,
00:36this Sunday that is coming right in roughly two days.
00:39What has been the most important aspect that has marked the electoral campaign
00:43as we are getting close to the date of the elections?
00:47Yeah, so Colombia arrived at these elections at a historic crossroad.
00:54This is not a simply presidential race.
00:57This is maybe a dispute over the future direction of the Colombian state itself.
01:03The country right now is debating whether to depend on a process of democratic transformation
01:10based on peace, sovereignty and social justice or whether to return to a model centered on militarization,
01:20oligarchic control and external geopolitical dependency as we know that on the last 200 years.
01:28So the polarization we are seeing is therefore structural, not merely electoral.
01:39I think that right now, for example, Ivan Cepeda represents an institutional and historic continuity of the progressive transition
01:48of the recent years, but with a more sober and strategic profile.
01:57He is not perceived as a traditional populistic figure, but rather as a political actor deeply associated with a peace
02:06process,
02:07human rights, historical memory and democratic dialogue in a country marked by decades of political violence,
02:16that symbolic dimension matters enormously.
02:20His candidacy also reflects an important evolution within the Colombian progressive sectors,
02:27the attempt to move from protest politics toward long term statecraft.
02:34And by another side, we have the opposition.
02:37So the representation of the traditional policy that I mentioned before with the war,
02:43with the wrong positives, with the narcotraffics as well.
02:48So the country has to decide this Sunday if they continue by the way of the peace and to change
02:57the country in a state of social rights.
03:01Or if we go back again to these policies implanted and supported as well by the United States and sometimes
03:09by the European Union,
03:10where the biggest oligarchies decided the way of the country only on the interests of the biggest oligarchies,
03:23biggest enterprises and international multinationals based in Colombia.
03:29The theory that we played just before we began with the interview deal about the different policies and actions that
03:35the Petro Administration tried to implement,
03:37and some they did successfully, to try to improve the human rights situations of people,
03:42especially in rural areas that are impacted directly by the presence of parliamentary armed groups.
03:49So what will be the impact in terms of human rights in a change of policy, as we were saying,
03:54that could be elected on next Sunday?
03:58You know, here it's very important to take into account on the framework of the human rights, the right of
04:05the peace, you know.
04:08Many people ask if the total peace strategy filed it.
04:13And I think that maybe the total peace strategy revealed contradiction, limitation and implementation problems,
04:20but it also exposed a deeper threat.
04:23Colombians cannot solve its structural conflict and the human rights situation exclusively throughout the military means.
04:31Peace is not weakness.
04:33Peace is not weakness.
04:33The real debate is how to construct the state authority without reproducing cycles of violence,
04:43as we see with the Uribe's government, as we see with the Santos government, and as we see with Ivan
04:50Duque government.
04:51So the future Colombian government will likely need more selective discipline and strategic peace approach,
04:57but abandoning peace as an horizon altogether would represent historic regressions.
05:06So I think that we have this Sunday the opportunity to choose again a president who will continue the peace
05:20and the reforms needed in Colombia to have a country who can be much more touristic,
05:27much more respectful, much more respectful as well of the human rights, much more strong on the economic and financial
05:32situation and system.
05:35And of course, a country where the people who are every time forget it.
05:41So the poor people, the farmers, the students, the women and the old people.
05:48So with the next Sunday, we're going to have the opportunity to choose maybe a government who will continue to
05:55give more opportunities to these people,
05:59started by the president Petro or to go back with the Abelardo de las Priella and the Paloma Valencia who
06:05represent,
06:06I repeat again, this framework of corruption, this framework of narcotics as well,
06:16who are actually very dangerous for the country, where we can't take into account the geopolitical context we live actually
06:26in Latin America,
06:28because we know that Colombia is the principal door of South America and borders with Venezuela,
06:36where you have nine military bases of the United States and where maybe the new government will, I hope,
06:46put much more restrictions all in the interest of the independence of the country and the self-determination,
06:53where maybe the United States and the biggest corporations will not continue to have the hand over the Colombian power
07:03and over the interests of the Colombian people.
07:06David, we have seen allegations of foreign interference as there have been proof put forward with the Honduras case scandal
07:14of the foreign interference of the US and Israel in electoral process in South America and Central America,
07:20especially to try to remove the progressive movements that go against the hegemony of the United States,
07:25where we have seen what happened in Honduras and we have seen allegations coming from different sectors in Colombia
07:30regarding that they also want to do something similar to Colombia in these electoral processes and also in Mexico.
07:36So what is the impact of this and what can be done to face it?
07:42So Colombia remains one of the one of Washington's case strategy allies in Latin America.
07:48This is obviously and we have to know that for these hundred last years,
07:56maybe United States has in Colombia the most biggest ally in the western side of the world.
08:04It's geographic position, military cooperation, proximity to Venezuela, as I mentioned before,
08:10and access to both the Pacific and Caribbean make its geopolitically essential.
08:16For decades, Colombia was integrated into a hemispheric security architecture,
08:22strongly influenced by the United States.
08:26What happened in this election will therefore have regional consequences.
08:31A progressive victory could reinforce Latin American integration and multipolar diplomacy,
08:39while a hardline conservative victory could reactivate a more confrontational regional posture.
08:47So when we have the news we had in the last weeks with the ignorance in Honduras election in Chile,
08:58what makes Donald Trump in the policies of Peru, Ecuador.
09:04Of course, we can understand that for the United States it excites our warriors to lose definitely Colombia.
09:16And, of course, this is important to be warning about the behavior of the White House during these elections in
09:27Colombia.
09:28And, of course, it represents as well this ignorance of violation of the international law,
09:34because we have to know that it excites on the UN Charter the self-determination of the countries who have
09:43to be protected.
09:44But we know that for the last weeks and the last months,
09:49on the last years for the U.S. and for the Western countries in general,
09:53it never excites this right.
09:56It excites just the right of the corporations who are actually scarred,
09:59because the multipolar policies promoted by Russia and China and many other countries made that other countries want to become
10:11much more independent.
10:12And, of course, when we listen that Washington has interferences in the Colombian elections,
10:20in the Mexican policies, with the help of a country like Israel, accused of genocide,
10:27accused as well by the governmental terrorism.
10:32Of course, of course, this is a little bit worried.
10:35But I have confidence that the people in Colombia have much more confidence in the process started by the President
10:44Petro,
10:44and they have much more conscience about what was the governments who governed before the President Petro,
10:52and the government we have actually, of course, with mistakes, of course, with difficulties.
10:57But, of course, the way of the peace is much more important than the way of the war,
11:06where, definitely, when the policy of the war happens,
11:11the only people who pay the consequences are the poor people and not the people who are on the spheres
11:18of the power,
11:20traditionally the corporations, the banks, and the multinationals installed in Colombia.
11:27Thank you, David, for your time here in From the South,
11:29for your input regarding this electoral process in Colombia.
11:33Now, thanks to you, and I call to all the Colombian citizens to vote, vote with conscience.
11:41This is the most important thing we have to do.
11:45Remember that we have a history.
11:47Remember that we have a country who can be a powerful country,
11:52one of the most powerful countries in Latin America.
11:55And this is the time to defend this integrity and what we have as a country and as Colombian citizens
12:04as well.
12:04Thanks to you.
12:06Thank you, David. We'll stay tuned to see what happens on Sunday.
12:09Let's now continue.
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