By Valentina Jofré on August 6, 2018
Colombia will now have a new president. After being elected in the second round of the presidential elections on June 17, with nearly 10 million votes, Iván Duque will take over from Juan Manuel Santos in the Casa de Nariño in Bogota. What is expected of his government, however, seems to come as no surprise to many, as the great architect of Duque’s campaign and who always be accompanying him was former President Álvaro Uribe (2002-2010).
Shortly before the presidential campaign began, Duque was a little-known senator from the Democratic Center. He was elected from a closed list in the Senate, led by Uribe. Several analysts have argued that it was thanks to the presence of the former president that he achieved such popularity in such a short time. But now Duque will be the President of Colombia and it remains to be seen what role Uribe will assume in this new government.
While some experts believe that Uribe’s presence in Duque’s administration will not diminish, others point out that, at the very least, he would remain in the shadows. For now, the programmatic agenda of Santos’ successor is tinged with what was Uribe’s mandate in terms of security and national and foreign investment. In economic matters, for example, Duque appointed Alberto Carrasquilla as Finance Minister, who was also the head of the same portfolio during Uribe’s administration.
However, the legal problems facing the former president could also impact Duque’s administration. Uribe was called in to be questioned by the Supreme Court in a case of alleged witness tampering. That is why Uribe initially announced that he would resign his seat in the Senate. This week, however, he ended up recanting that decision.
“Duque knows that the price he has to pay will be the price of Uribe’s fate. They’re linked. But I don’t think that’s all bad, let’s not forget that Uribe has a high degree of favoritism and Duque is going to stick with it,” Pedro Luis Pemberthy, an analyst at the National University of Colombia, told the news outlet La Tercera. But there’s also the distraction factor. Uribe’s usual news coverage has given the Santos government a break and a cover to hide under, something that could be repeated with the Duke’s administration.
Uribe’s Role
As a member of the Senate, Uribe – who garnered the most votes in the legislative elections, with 800,000 votes – will assume the role of leader of the majority of his Democratic Center Party.
“His political skill will be very important in moving the new President’s legislative agenda forward. However, he will have to reduce his meetings and public appearances with the President, as well as the mention of him, so that Duque does not have to take on the controversy of the former president,” Cristián Rojas, director of Political Science at the University of La Sabana, told La Tercera.
With the latter, the analyst refers to Duque’s defense against the Supreme Court’s call for an inquiry into Uribe. The future President stated that “we are sure that their good reputation and innocence will prevail”. That earned him criticism because experts and politicians argued that Duque, as president, should adopt a more reserved attitude towards Uribe.
“Duque should not make any statement that appears to hinder the work of justice, but he should maintain his loyalty to Uribe,” Rojas says.
In any case, for Pemberthy, Álvaro Uribe’s presence will have a public and a private edge: “He will be a legislator who defends the government’s agenda. And the private one will consist of marking the route, the sense of government,” he says. “He will be a ruler in the shadows,”.
Source: Resumen Latinoamericano