{"id":10519,"date":"2016-10-07T20:07:45","date_gmt":"2016-10-07T20:07:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/moir.org.co\/web\/?p=10519"},"modified":"2016-10-07T20:07:45","modified_gmt":"2016-10-07T20:07:45","slug":"colombian-senator-announces-presidential-candidacy-at-cornell-slams-failure-of-peace-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/moir.com.co\/web\/colombian-senator-announces-presidential-candidacy-at-cornell-slams-failure-of-peace-deal\/","title":{"rendered":"Colombian Senator Announces Presidential Candidacy at Cornell, Slams Failure of Peace Deal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Drew Musto, http:\/\/cornellsun.com\/, octubre 7 de 2016<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Colombian Senator Jorge Enrique Robledo declared his candidacy for president of Colombia Thursday in a Spanish-language speech at Ives Hall. Robledo belongs to the Polo Democr\u00e1tico Alternativo, a leftist political party and the only party expressly opposed to incumbent President Juan Manuel Santos.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe failure of those that have been governing us is truly evident,\u201d Robledo said. \u201cColombia needs my position, and we desperately need to change.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Robledo\u2019s announcement comes just four days after the people of Colombia narrowly voted to reject a peace deal between the country\u2019s government and the FARC \u2014 a Marxist rebel group formally known in English as the \u201cRevolutionary Armed Fighters of Colombia.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The agreement \u2014 which was poised to end Latin America\u2019s longest-running conflict \u2014 was signed by both the Colombian government and the FARC on September 26, but it will now expire at the end of October due to the failed referendum. The 52-year conflict has claimed over 220,000 lives and displaced over five million Colombians, according to CNN.<\/span><\/p>\n

In an interview with The Sun, Robledo said he is a strong supporter of the peace deal and has criticized Colombia\u2019s reigning leadership for allowing the country\u2019s people to vote it down.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSince day one, this conflict has been damaging and dismantling the country,\u201d he said. \u201cThe biggest point in the peace treaty is that it disarms the FARC.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Leaderboard 2 Many Colombians \u2014 including those who have lost friends and family to the conflict \u2014 voted against the peace deal because they felt it made too many concessions to the FARC, according to The New York Times. The agreement would have allowed most of the organization\u2019s soldiers to re-enter society with no punishment and promised relatively light sentencing for leaders who have committed war crimes.<\/span><\/p>\n

Robledo said that he understands the pain these naysayers feel, but views the deal as the best way to move forward from conflict.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe peace accords cannot resolve things that already happened in the past. It can\u2019t bring back my friends or the dead,\u201d he said. \u201cBut what it can solve is what will happen in the future.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Robledo criticized Santos for allowing the Colombian people to vote on the accords, saying that the president instead should have issued the agreement to the Colombian people as a mandate.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe choice to consult the people is always an option, but one should consult the people depending on the reasons,\u201d Robledo said. \u201cIf you have the opportunity to not consult the people, and you go ahead and do it and you lose, it\u2019s ridiculous.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Robledo also criticized Santos\u2019s desire for Colombia to join the Trans Pacific Partnership, a free trade agreement among 12 Pacific Rim countries, arguing that it would tremendously harm Colombia\u2019s economy.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFree trade agreements have gone really bad for Colombia,\u201d he said. \u201cEven the people who are proposing the TPP within Colombia concede that the sugar, palm oil and biofuel industries would essentially disappear if Colombia joined the TPP. These are key agricultural sectors within the Colombian economy.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

He emphasized that national unity would be the hallmark of his presidency if he is elected.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI am proposing to unite all of Colombia \u2014 people from all parties, all social groups, all parts of society \u2014 in pushing forward a democratic agenda that does not include removing private property, but that does point toward making radical changes to the economic and social structure,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Robledo further detailed his six priorities as president: defending labor, protecting non-monopolistic production industries, preserving the environment, preventing political corruption, controlling big capital so that it benefits the country and creating an authentic democracy. He also mentioned Colombia\u2019s income inequality as a key issue driving his campaign.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI will work for the poor, the middle class and corporations and entrepreneurs who are not monopolistic,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I will leave the doors wide open for the involvement of all people, regardless of political party.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Robledo vowed to set his country on a path toward better redistribution of income, but noted that the process to do so will be lengthy \u2014 \u201cI will become the president, not a magician,\u201d he quipped.<\/span><\/p>\n

To win the election, Robledo plans to coalesce the fractured groups of people who oppose Santos under his name. After his lecture, he expressed confidence in his prospects of becoming president.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI will win the presidential election in 2018,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Robledo also voiced his thoughts on the U.S. presidential election, saying the two candidates are similar to Santos and \u00c1lvaro Uribe, a former Colombian president and leading opponent to the peace deal.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cClinton and Trump represent the same interests and institutions. They would govern for the same interests that are not favorable for the nation. Those interests are for small minorities, not for the American people, and I support neither of them,\u201d Robledo said.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Drew Musto, http:\/\/cornellsun.com\/, octubre 7 de 2016 Colombian Senator Jorge Enrique Robledo declared his candidacy for president of Colombia Thursday in a Spanish-language speech at Ives Hall. Robledo belongs to the Polo Democr\u00e1tico Alternativo, a leftist political party and the only party expressly opposed to incumbent President Juan Manuel Santos. \u201cThe failure of those that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10520,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[97,4,98],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10519","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-imperialismo-y-neoliberalismo","category-jorge-enrique-robledo","category-politica"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/moir.com.co\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10519","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/moir.com.co\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/moir.com.co\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moir.com.co\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moir.com.co\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10519"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/moir.com.co\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10519\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moir.com.co\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/moir.com.co\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moir.com.co\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moir.com.co\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}