00:00and to delve deeper into the topic we welcome now david lopez an analyst and human rights
00:05specialist hello david and welcome to from the south
00:13thank you thank you very much to open me this space and
00:16thank you so much to follow these important elections in colombia it's a pleasure to have
00:21you so david colombia enters the 2026 elections with a deep political polarization after four
00:27years of gustavo petro's presidency how would you describe the country's political mode today
00:33and what explains the level of division between the left and the right
00:40so colombia arrived today with a very big political tension
00:49maybe social as well and geopolitical this is not only a simple election
00:54uh as uh it happened in other elections this is maybe uh uh a confrontation uh between two uh
01:05historical models uh by uh in one side you have the possibility to continue the the the process
01:14started by the by the president petro so a process much more uh democratical more where he removed the
01:23territorial peace the social justice the human rights the national sovereignty uh by another way
01:30you have the uh restoration of a conservator bloc uh who want to propose to uh to come back in
01:40this
01:40politic of the national security uh promoted and financed by the united states and sometimes by the
01:47the european union what the social discipline and the militarization is maybe the the structure uh of
01:56this uh of this side of the policy uh we have today in in discussion during these elections um the
02:05the
02:06dimension of this day it's big because as you mentioned before you have 41 million uh colombian people
02:12who can vote today with uh more than uh 13 700 uh places to vote and more than 120 000
02:26uh tables where the
02:27people can go as well to to elect the the candidate and uh that showed the biggest uh and important
02:36institutional process we have today to elect the new president but at the same time uh we have um as
02:44well uh 400 000 effective of the police and the army um who are deployed now the country with uh
02:54some uh
02:56risk you know that uh we can have because traditionally we know that the extreme right and the right
03:03try to uh try to uh buy the votes manipulate the the vote and uh of course the corruption it's
03:10every time
03:11present like many other countries in latin america and uh more of that we have um as well the
03:18ignorance of foreign foreign countries like the united states and ecuador we see on these last days uh who
03:26are very uh important to take into account uh because this is one of the way of the geopolitical context
03:34we have today uh who show that uh the colombian elections are very important because we have to
03:41understand as well that colombia is one of the most important uh countries for the united states uh overall
03:49when we talk about the economical and geopolitical uh consequence and the interests of washington
03:59so david presidential candidate iván cepeda represents the continuity of gustavo petro's social model
04:05what are the key electoral advantages and disadvantages of running on a platform of deepening reforms to health
04:13pensions and labor yes so uh of course uh iban cepeda represents uh the the the candidature who is
04:27connected with the uh historical memory human rights the peace and defense of the victim he is
04:34uh uh beyond uh as a senator he is a human right defender who was victim of the
04:41uh national uh conflict in colombia so his program uh is not a simple list of promise he is the
04:50only
04:50candidate who has a program uh where you can count 400 pages where he taking count everybody so the
04:59farmers students uh african descents indigenous people uh entrepreneurs uh but as well the colombian who
05:08live outside of the country and this is very important the other uh biggest candidates like uh
05:16abelardo abelardo de las priella and paloma valencia they don't have something uh proposed uh as a
05:26governmental plan um they never propose of taking count uh these people if you see the actual plan
05:34governmental plan of abelardo de las priella you have only three pages this is incredible i think that
05:41nobody around the world who want to be president has only three pages as a
05:48governmental uh proposal as well for um paloma valencia who has only 13 pages and all what they
05:57represent has not logical uh when you you think how you want to implement what they propose
06:05uh i think that the the the the craft of the policy of the ivan cepeda uh is that uh
06:15of course he
06:16don't represent this right or extreme right who want to to to send and to sell as well a message
06:25of
06:26uh a spectacle or uh like a circus uh for for for for the country uh this is not an
06:35improvised
06:36candidature he represents a long uh way uh building by the denunciation against the paramilitarism
06:47he proposed policies in defense of the victims and the research of the truth and an issue political
06:55political issue to the armed conflict and this is very important because many people criticize that
07:01the government colombian government uh so the petro government don't make an out to stop the the
07:11conflict and to fight the narco traffickers and others on the country but uh this is the country uh who
07:18in
07:19this uh uh uh century fight that more the corruption fight that more the narco traffickers and at the same
07:27time he could promote social policies if we go back again to the policies applied by uh president uribe
07:36santos and duke uh it will be very very sad because we're gonna go back again to the
07:44uh forced disparation internal display the uh deployment uh and many other policies who were
07:52denounced as well by the united nations at the human rights council and others and of course uh it could
07:59be as well much more sad if we take into account the geopolitical context lived actually in latin america
08:06so david looking ahead to the final results what do you believe is truly at stake for colombia in
08:14these elections so um i hope that uh for these elections uh the people will be consigned uh about
08:27what we play uh today with the country we have to take into account what happened in venezuela
08:34with the kidnapping of the president maduro we have to take into account what happened actually
08:38as well in argentina where many people are on the extreme poverty and they don't have something to eat
08:45we have to take into account as well the threat existing against cuba and of course the geopolitical
08:52position uh colombian has actually uh in in connection with the united states you know we have to take into
09:01account that uh remember that colombia has a very big military cooperation with washington uh and
09:09they have uh military bases in uh in colombia they have um influence with many international corporations
09:19and of course lose colombia uh or give the opportunity to a new government to be much more
09:26far off the interest of washington and maybe uh uh uh put colombia in a condition where they can be
09:34much more near to beijing and maybe moscow we don't know what can happen on the next four years
09:40um of course uh it gives uh condition and situations we have to take into account and i hope that
09:48the
09:48colombian uh people could have in these uh conditions and these situations the opportunity to elect the
09:57people who can put the country on the way on the development but put as well the country in a
10:04place
10:04where we can continue to respond with all the difficulties we have on the legislative powers
10:10um to put the the country on the interest of the poor people on the farmers on the students as
10:17well
10:17on the army because this is the first time that a government like the petrol government respond with
10:25dignity to the to the social um interests and rights of the militaries who have to go to the to
10:34the
10:35territories fight against the narco-trafficants fight against the paramilitaries and at the end they
10:40put the lives uh and uh of course uh the we have we need uh somebody who continue uh this
10:49uh this policy
10:50with gustavo petro we had the opportunity to inscribe colombia as member of the human rights consulate
10:58this is something had never happened before because colombia was never interested to promote policies in
11:04human rights so um i hope that uh the people is consigning that and they will choose the candidate
11:13who responds uh definitely to the interest of the majority of the colombian people for the good of the
11:21continent as well final question david if you have to summarize that the single greatest threat to
11:29colombia's democratic stability in 2026 which one would it be i i didn't understand you very good
11:37because it cut could you repeat the question please of course if you have to summarize the single greatest
11:44threat to colombia's democratic stability in 2026 which one would it be
11:51if i have to to define the the maybe the the policy uh we can uh we can take in
12:03count for this 26
12:05from the petros government and what it have to continue is the policy of the response to the social
12:12policies uh who contain the right uh to the to the workers the right to the farmers the right to
12:22the
12:22to have a good quality of education um this is maybe the most important we have to continue
12:31and we have to take in count in this 2026 uh if we lose that i think uh we're gonna
12:41have
12:42very very big problems uh maybe the problems live actually in argentina will not be so big as we
12:49can we could have in colombia if we choose somebody who will orient the policy on the interests of the
12:56united states because colombia of course has many years of uh intern uh armed conflict and i think that
13:06uh if this uh if if if this continue the policy if the policy of uribe or heritage of uribe
13:13continue in
13:14this new uh government it will be very very sad so i think that for this 2026 we have to
13:21take in count
13:22the progress made by this government it have to continue and of course uh put a stop to this radical
13:29new fascism who uh is implanted right now in a latin american promoted as well by the united states
13:36thank you debbie for your time with us here in from the south
13:43thank you thank you thank you thank you very much i didn't i don't listen you very good at the
13:47end
13:47but i want just to leave a message to all the colombian citizens this is very important
13:53to gonna vote independently for the people they want you they want to vote the most important that they
14:00gonna vote and they're gonna vote with conscience because democracy is not only to have the freedom to
14:06vote is to have the opportunity to have the conscience to vote for the person who gonna respond for
14:14for our interests and not only for the interests of the right and oligarchic people once again thank
14:20you very most david it was a pleasure to have you from the south
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