Colombia has a new president

 

Colombia has a new president

Colombia has never been a peaceful country. Ever since July 20 of 1810, the day our country was given its independence, we have been a conflictive society. At the late 1880’s, the Thousand Days war unleashed and the ever-ending war between conservatists and liberalists kept the country under a constant trend of instability.

We moved on to live periods such as “La Violencia” in English, “the violence” that saw how this war between these two parties was reaching its climax and hence, costing millions of lives. The surging of new guerrillas such as FARC, ELN, and M-19 and the upgrowing business of drug trafficking added up to what seemed to be an already trembling nation.

Decades ahead, and entering the new millennium, Alvaro Uribe Velez was elected as the new president of Colombia in 2002. Alvaro Uribe and his intentions were clear. He wanted to fight the guerrillas and the terrorist organizations with fire and weapons. He allocated a considerable percentage of the nation’s budget to arming and obtaining high-caliber weaponry and artillery. His tenure was surrounded by corruption, his cabinet was stained all over with scandals that deteriorated his image throughout the end of the second decade of the millennium. The biggest controversy around him was the one about “falsos positivos”, formally known as extrajudicial killings. People who are killed by the government for no reason. However, the ejercito national de Colombia or Colombia’s army plus the president Alvaro Uribe had one. They killed a lot of innocent people and disguised them as drug traffickers in order to increase the figures and display a “positive” image of what the army and the president were doing against the war vs the drugs and trafficking.

Uribe’s tenure ended in 2010, when Juan Manuel Santos was then selected as Colombia’s president. Juan Manuel followed a more dialoguing-centered ideology. He sat down with the leaders of FARC and started the peace treaty in La Havana, Cuba, with the intention to end definitely the war between FARC and the Nation. Backstage, Alvaro Uribe was still trying to get things done his way, by creating a plebiscite with his party Centro Democrático. This plebiscite would cancel those agreements between the government and FARC, with the plebiscite winning. In the end, the agreements happened for the sake of the country and FARC gave away their weaponry and returned to a fragmented society. Once again, Uribe tried to put his hands on the country, but he failed. He was idolized and praised by many, but his credibility was sinking.

In 2018, Iván Duque was selected as president of Colombia for the period of 2018-2022. He was representing Centro Democrático, Alvaro Uribe’s party. Once again, the ideals of Alvaro Uribe and his extreme-right-wing-ish ideas lunged on to Colombia. On 2021, the strike that lasted for more than 2 months was retaliated with violence towards demonstrators. I talk about that in the last and only video I have made besides this one hehe. 4 years after, on this date, Gustavo Petro, the person who lost to Iván Duque in 2018 and the frontman of the opposition was finally selected and Colombia’s course shifts. We don’t know what will happen, we are hopeful that it will be for the better. At least, we know that we are not trapped anymore by Alvaro Uribe. Let’s hope for the best Colombia, tierra querida!