00:00And let's stay on this important topic in Colombia, and let's welcome international law expert Yvonne Tellez to better understand
00:06Colombia's electoral process and its results. Welcome, Yvonne, to From the South once more.
00:12Once more.
00:14Good night. Good night.
00:15Yvonne, we were just listening to the statements of Yvonne Zepeda, and he was making clear what Colombia needs to
00:22do, especially taking into account what the candidate for the far right represents.
00:26So what is your take? What is your opinion on how these electoral results will impact Colombia?
00:32Okay. Well, I think Colombia is facing this security fear and this probable rightward turn.
00:49But I think we have to see it not so, I mean, not only from what we feel or the
00:57concerns that arise from these results from today's polls,
01:03but how these growing sectors of society are increasingly translating, for example, social grievances into demands of security rather than
01:15demands for redistribution or for social transformation.
01:22I think that what we've seen today is like the answer to a question or a political question that could
01:30be asked is
01:31more than who can make society more just, for example, in this case, it's probably one of the main roots
01:43of Yvonne Zepeda's proposal.
01:47But on the other side, I think sectors of society move to who can protect me.
01:53And I think this transformation can explain in a way how these dynamics went and showed this rightward turn.
02:07I think we cannot see these elections as isolated.
02:12We have to take into account what Colombia has faced during the past 100 years.
02:18And the Colombians and the Colombians, we have faced multiple forms of violence, of course, armed conflict, more than 60
02:27years of armed conflict, drug trafficking, illegal arms production and groups, force displacement.
02:36I mean, serious human rights violations.
02:39So security occupies a unique symbolic place in Colombians political culture.
02:46So if we see a candidate that interprets and moves everything into a security issue, that is, in this case,
02:58there is Priaya, comes and says, OK, poverty is a security issue.
03:03Migration is a security issue.
03:04Social protest is a security and a public order issue.
03:09Institutional weakness is a security issue.
03:12So this has a profound sound and impact on the Colombians' appeal to what they choose.
03:26So in this case, I think voters are evaluating those alternatives, not to the lengths of justice, equality or rights
03:39that will be the ideal and what we would like it to be, but to the lens of protection, of
03:46order and of control.
03:48And if that means to lose or to render civil liberties, social rights, social transformation, in order to defend those
04:03privileges and those values, if we can call them like that.
04:09So I think Colombians, well, part of Colombians will likely go through that, I mean, trying to search that.
04:21And I think that's one of the explanations that can be understood in how de las Priegas rised so fast
04:31and so unexpectedly, of course, and surprisingly.
04:36Inclusively, I mean, even leaving very behind Paloma Valencia's and Yoribismo, that was one or is one of the strongest
04:49political forces in Colombia.
04:52Yvonne, as you were saying, what came as a surprise in today's result is the quick rise of the respira,
04:59especially in the final days of the campaign.
05:01Taking that into account, what does the historic PAC needs to start working as of tomorrow, as of Monday, looking
05:08ahead on the second round?
05:11Okay, I think that PACTOC cannot overlook the international trend, the broader international trend, and even the regional international trend,
05:25that it's trying to make voters prioritize, as I was saying, effectiveness, protection, over any ideological or even logical political
05:41commitments.
05:42So I think that even Colombia has to look, even, I mean, of course, understanding its own reality,
05:49but there's an international or regional trend, I'm talking about Argentina, Ecuador, Salvador, and, of course, the United States.
05:55I mean, there's a common pattern over there that seeks security, predictability, control, stability.
06:02So I think those factors as something that are being searched and are being, I mean, commonly taken by, in
06:17this case, for example, from the far right, as the respira,
06:20and incorporated into its discourse and into its program, not program, I'm sorry, just discourse, have to be taken because
06:31I think this is something that is calling and that's sounding appealing to voters.
06:38So I think that not changing what is the main ideas and the main values and the main structure of
06:49what PACTOC and of what Ivan Cepeda's possessions and pretense for the country,
06:56because this is something that half of the country is voting in favor of.
07:04I mean, this is something that has to be strongly reinstated, but I think that those issues that tend to
07:12be very appealing to those voters in the far right or in the right or even in the center have
07:19to be also taken into account
07:21because this is a dialogue that has to be installed with those voters that haven't been decided or are, for
07:31example, in the center or just haven't voted, for example, in this case.
07:39So I think this is a dialogue that has to be incorporated in the same proposal.
07:50I mean, not changing anything, but has to be taken into account because this is showing that it sounds appealing
08:01to some of the voters' concerns.
08:03I think that, for example, we know that security is the strongest issue here favoring Abelardo de la Espriella.
08:13So this is showing that voters then prioritize crime, armed groups, public order, state authority.
08:23So in this case, this has to be also seen.
08:28Another thing that I think that the campaign has to look at is the center vote, because even if Sergio
08:38Fajardo's votes remain likely to be very, very unimportant,
08:45because they are relatively small, relatively small numbers, these voters, voters of Fajardo, for example, are generally urban, educated, institutionally
09:01oriented, and less ideological.
09:04So their behavior in the second round could prove decisive, particularly in cities such as Bogotá, in Medellín, for example,
09:16and cities like Bucaramanga or Cúcuta, for example.
09:22So I think center cannot be also underscored.
09:26I think those are two pillars that Ivan Cepeda has to take into account.
09:34Thank you very much, Yvonne, for your time, as always, here with us in From the South.
09:39Thank you very much for the invitation.
09:41It's always a pleasure.
09:42We're analyzing a bit more about the electoral process that Colombia experienced today and its results, as well as we
09:50know, we should call the candidate for the left of historic PAC, Ivan Cepeda,
09:56and the far-right candidate Abelardo de la Espriella advanced to the second round of the world's two voted options.
10:02Following this first round is Sunday, and the vote will be decided on June 21st, where Colombians will finally elect
10:09the next president for the next four years,
10:12and also mark, because both sides are very divided as to what their policies will be,
10:18so Colombia will decide on what the country is going to look like in the next coming four years.
10:23On one side, to continue with the process of transformation and the process of inclusion that opened with President Petro,
10:31and on the other side, to go back to the times of more neoliberal policies, of more neoliberal regimes, like
10:39it was with Iván Duque and Álvaro Uribe.
10:41That's all for now. Stay tuned for all the latest details.
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