Atilio Borón, análisis sobre Colombia y Latinoamerica

Pasaportes digitales en el horizonte

Finlandia planea convertirse en el primer país de la Unión Europea en probar pasaportes digitales, que permitirán a los viajeros demostrar su identidad y su estado de vacunación a través de sus teléfonos inteligentes. Los pasaportes digitales se basarán en tecnología blockchain y verificación biométrica y serán compatibles con el Certificado Digital COVID de la UE.

Establishment Vs Petro

OPINION | The political arena in Colombia is really interesting this year – and worrisome too. The upcoming of the first leftist president in a Latin American country where strong and too extreme feudalists have ruled practically since the end of the 19th century, is causing a time of harsh realities to be exposed almost everyday. The images of prosecutors leading a factual raid to Casa de Nariño this Tuesday, as the House of the Colombian President were the main target of a criminal investigation, let many questions open. In comparison, it is as the FBI were conducting a raid to the White House of president Biden.

What would be of a Colombia with a Petro-president

The Colombian traditional media has been campaigning for years against politician and economist presidential candidate Gustavo Petro, heading for the second round against engineer Rodolfo Hernández, known as the political phenomenon and the Colombian Trump. Petro, who was a member of the M19’s guerrilla when he was a teenager of 17, has a long history of political participation in a country where being a leftist means to be in the fear of being assassinated by dark forces emanating from the powerful clans of Colombian feudalism and landowners. The political party made by the former M19’s guerrillas after their peace process with late president Belisario Betancourt Cuartas, the Unión Patriótica, were massacred, one by one, to the number of 4 thousand 153 persons between 1984 and 2016, according to the Special Jurisdiction for Peace.

Engineer Hernández, an elderly tiktoker wanting to reach Colombian presidency by clicks

He hardly knows where is Puerto Careño, the provincial capital of one of the poorest Colombian Amazonian departments, however, he got voters in that region. For a man born in 1945, it is to say a pre-digital, he has been probably one of the most online political campaigner of South America, leading his simple proposal to the Colombians from his home in Bucaramanga City, in where he was major between 2016 and 2019.

Engineer Hernández as he is popularly called (el ingeniero in Spanish), is seen as a political phenomenon in this Latin American country heading to choose the successor of unpopular president Iván Duque this month. While every media, including the alternative ones, were concentrated in firing the struggle between leftist presidential candidate Gustavo Petro and the rightist political clan of former president Álvaro Uribe, nobody was really following the gradual rising of one of the eldest presidential candidate of this century in Colombia. He is 3 years younger than US president Joe Biden.

The Colombian media and especially the traditional journalism, entering in a serious crisis of credibility and align with the traditional political power and economical control of one of the most social unequal countries of the Western Hemisphere, portrayed Hernández as an elderly loquito, who says rude things with impunity and has only one proposal: Fight corruption! The controversial director of news Semana channel, Vicky Davila, once asked him: ‘What do you think of those who say that you are just a crazy old folk?’ In the same style, the representatives of the alternative media, led by young people, who became the Colombian guarantee to see another perspective of reality through social networks and YouTube, invited him once to a panel. They asked questions to him as he was a naughty boy just disturbing the political scenario, once more, as he were an old fellow just for laugh. Only the political critic and youtuber Levy Rincón was doing best the homework and made deep questions to the engineer about his administration as major of Bucaramanga.

One thing we all are clear about Engineer Hernández: He touched the vibes of too many Colombians who felt not represented in the traditional politics and management of the rich but yet poor societies. It includes the speech of the same left, where Gustavo Petro, his Vice-president companion Francia Márquez and the Pacto Histórico are campaigning. And that is something that any left candidate and the media must look at before putting aside a political proposal. Hernández has been identified as the Colombian Donald Trump and the comparison is right exact. It can happen the same: In USA, Hillary Clinton was seem as the natural successor of Obama (here we don’t have an Obama with Duque, by the way), while they dismissed that old folk millionaire TV presenter of Trump. He won surprisingly and did whatever he wanted.

The expected rival to Petro for the second round of the presidential elections, was another engineer, the former major of Medellín Federico Gutierrez, known as Fico. It was very soon that Fico got the essences of the Uribismo and the blessing of the elderly political patrón who is now busy attending court proceedings. Although Fico was not a member of the political party of Uribe, he was covered by it after the political consultation to elect the presidential candidates for the first round. All the attention went to Fico, and Petro prepared his soul to answer the Fico’s strategy of trying to destroy his political reputation with the ghost of communism and the allegedly dangers to democracy if a leftists president would be elected. Fico did not have an elaborate proposal for his possible government and everything was let to the fact of a mostly continuation of the neoliberalism policies highly supported by the Uribismo, but deeply unpopular for the poor. The only different point of Fico with Uribismo was his compromise to support the peace process with the Farc guerrilla.

But one fighter in the ring did not arrive and Fico lost the first round, letting to the surprise of many the elderly tiktoker to face Gustavo Petro. With his proposal to fight corruption, Hernández stated that he was not going to attend debates against Petro. In this few weeks to the final decision, the engineer is becoming more evident, all his actions and adventures as major of Bucaramange are already online and many facts of corruption contradicts his own speech that, by the way, has problems of copy right by using expressions and speeches from Mexican president López Obrador. The famous slap in the face that he gave to a Bucaramanga councilor and that made many laugh so much, it is now known that it comes from his typical outbursts of fury when he is confronted about his actions. The councilor was questioning him fairly. His views on women are as controversial as the ones of Trump and he confessed publicity that he is involved in the construction sector where he makes housing for the poor, putting them to pay forever in a scheme of eternal debt…

After the first round results, the different political forces made their way towards both candidates, knowing that it would define the next president, now no on the hands of traditional old parties, but in what could be the first leftists Colombian chief of state or, as in a tragic comedy, the government of a man that looks more like Trump and that could conduct Colombia to an uncertain scenario.

Duque, unpopular Duke

It is coming the end of a presidency that will be remembered in Colombian history as one of the most unpopular of the 21st century. I really do not know if there will be a future president this century that could defeat president Duque from the podium of a disastrous administration. He could never get of the image of being a «puppet of former president Álvaro Uribe» and, surprisingly, he seemed to enjoy it rather than finding a problem on it. That was, precisely, his behavior all these four years: Ignoring facts and living in «another country»… «Living in Swiss» as the fierce political critic and youtuber Levis Rincón often says about him and his clan in the Notiparaco channel.

In October 2021 the Colombian and rightist newspaper El Tiempo located him among one of the most unpopular presidents of the planet. By then, he was more unpopular than Brazilian deforester Jair Bolsonaro and funny figures like Boris Johnson of UK and Pedro Castillo of Peru! The list, that was composed by a global join of figures, put him by then at 20 % of popularity and now, few weeks for his waited leaving of the Nariño House, he remains to that same level of acceptance by the Colombians and, in a very special and historical way, rejected by the Colombian young people.

But it does not matter to him at all. He dared to say to BBC in an interview that in a hypothetical case of a reelection, being him a candidate president, he would be chosen by the people again, because he has very positive figures…! Far from reality. You can observe a president that seems to live, once more, in Swiss… or in UK… or even in Cinderella. During the past first rounds of elections, he left the Nariño House with his lady, on a red carpet stretched out for meters and lined with honor guards… to vote! I can guess that his recent trip to Europe, where he met the remanent of nobility, made a big impact in his ego. While he was doing such show that destroys more his image, many Colombians were going to vote, many in regions with dangerous problems of security, for new options in one of the countries with the deepest social equality in the world.

The young people that was the flag of his political campaign four years ago, became their more dedicated opponents. The orange economy that he tried to put up as standard of Colombian modernization, ended in red stains of blood with the unstoppable killing of social leaders during his four years term and, probably the climax of his negligence, the 2021’s national marches that conducted the security forces to shoot mostly young protesters in the national territory… A brutal regime… that would be the title in future history pages about the presidency of Iván Duque or the want to be Duke…

During these two decades of the 21st century, Duque is the 4th Colombian president and one of the most unpopular. The other one was Andrés Pastrana, who did more than what this one has done… at least Pastrana made concrete steps to peace the guerrillas at the time.

But Duque is so unpopular, than even he has been criticized by his own party, the rightish Centro Democrático, for example by the controversial Senator Maria Fernanda Cabal, who has referred to him in bad ways. At the same time, he became a benefit for the opposition, thanks to his lack of vision and his own comments. Recently, his political comments and the ones of his army general, attracted heathen critics from everywhere, stating that he was intervening in the elections, something that is forbidden to a ruling president in every democracy of the world, at least there were a reelection process underway. But his visionless actions seem to benefit, rather than put his opponents in troubles. The fact that an unpopular president like Duque makes an observation on the political program of one candidate, it would mean a positive input for the people to know that what he says means little.

Tenga en cuenta si viaja a Estados Unidos este mes

Estas son las medidas que el gobierno de los Estados Unidos aplica para viajeros internacionales que planean viajar este mes a dicho territorio en la campaña para prevenir el ingreso de nuevas variantes del covid19 y mientras los científicos dan un veredicto sobre la ómicron.

Tenga en cuenta lo siguiente:

• Debe presentar un examen covid19 realizado 24 horas antes de la salida de su vuelo – OJO, ya no es de 72 horas previas como antes. Incluye a los que ya tienen las vacunas.
• Tenga en cuenta que si usted tiene más de 60 años de edad, posiblemente tendrá más controles o incluso le podrían impedir el ingreso al país por su propia protección.
• Debe presentar su carné de vacunación si usted es mayor de 18 años.
• Si es menor de edad y viaja solo, deberá presentar su carné de vacunación y demás documentos adicionales a menores de edad como permiso de los padres.
• Menores de edad no tienen que presentar el carné de vacunación si viajan con un adulto que cumple todos los requerimientos.

Conoce las nuevas disposiciones para ingresar a Colombia

El Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores de Colombia anuncia este mes las nuevas disposiciones que empezarán a regir a partir del 14 de diciembre de 2021 para la entrada de viajeros a Colombia desde el exterior:

1. De acuerdo con la Resolución 2052 del Ministerio de Salud y Ministerio de Transporte, es obligatorio para ingresar al país tener el esquema de vacunación contra el COVID19.
2. Solo como excepción, podrán ingresar con el esquema de vacunación iniciado, con una prueba PCR COVID negativa tomada máximo 72 horas antes de viajar.
3. Los colombianos pueden ingresar sin certificado de vacunación con una prueba PCR negativa.
   Esta medida aplica únicamente para mayores de 18 años.
4. Adicionalmente, seguirá vigente el requisito del pre-registro de migración Colombia Checkmig, el cual podrá realizar 72 horas antes de su viaje, a través de la página web: https://apps.migracioncolombia.gov.co/pre-registro/public/preregistro.jsf
   Por favor tenga en cuenta que en el diligenciamiento del formulario Checkmig, debe registrar la información del vuelo que lo conecta a Colombia.

En el siguiente enlace podrán consultar la infografía detallada sobre las disposiciones de ingreso a Colombia:

https://www.cancilleria.gov.co/newsroom/news/nuevas-medidas-ingresar-colombia-aerea-diciembre-2021

Mafia y circo en el poder

OPINION — Hablar del gobierno Duque y en aras de las elecciones es como hablar en medio de un partido de fútbol con todo el mundo gritando lo que pasa en el campo. Pero es importante dejar por escrito algo.

No pasa una semana sin que el régimen Duque dé algo que decir. Seguramente será el presidente colombiano con más memes de la historia. Pero más que memes, va a ser el presidente que será recordado por tantos desaciertos, por tanta arrogancia, por tantos improperios, por tanta ingenuidad macabra, que la historia, recordada en un futuro lejano, terminará por decir que Duque es una leyenda, una invención de la ciencia ficción.

Demolición de estatuas, un acto de revisión histórica

El alcalde de Popayán, Juan Carlos López Castrillón, corrió de manera inmediata a auxiliar a su ancestro Sebastián de Belalcázar, derribado por los indígenas Misak en el cerro de Tulcán, en donde, dicen los Misak, había una pirámide ancestral previa a la llegada de los conquistadores españoles. A uno le gustaría que los líderes políticos como este López, corrieran a hacer declaraciones tan contundentes cuando asesinan líderes sociales, indígenas, negros, obreros, estudiantes, cuando las fuerzas de seguridad del Estado abusan del poder.