María Fernanda Cabal is a Colombian businesswoman, political scientist, and politician. In the 2014 parliamentary elections, she was elected representative of the Bogota Congress with the support of the Democratic Center, and in 2018 she was elected to the party’s Senate of the Republic. The Cabal reaffirmed her mandate in 2022, and she became a primary candidate for that year’s presidential election.
What does Millei’s victory mean for Argentina and for Ibero-America as a whole?
Javier Millay’s victory is a breath of fresh air not only in Latin America but in democracies around the world. It is a defense of individuals with creative abilities, a defense of free markets, and a defense against the statist model that nullifies the creative spirit and produces the enormity of nations; It must be supported by oppressive taxation that impoverishes the people and strengthens state power. A bureaucracy that only serves politicians. The victory of La Libertad Avanza is to teach economics in a simple way so that all Argentines understand why they are poor and why all countries that imitate the socialist model are poor. It represents victory. Javier Millay had the ability to teach economics to young people and save them from progressivism.
Gustavo Petro lost popular support and was defeated in local elections. Will he finish his term?
If Colombia had institutions and justice – and there is some, but not enough – Mr. Petro would be removed from office by the National Electoral Council for exceeding campaign spending limits. That’s because campaign spending limits are set in the Constitution. Moreover, an impeachment trial is pending over his son’s statements and the scandal of his private secretary Laura Sarabia, a trial that would have already begun if Colombia had a full-fledged democracy. As a result, he will lose his job and a criminal liability trial will begin at the Supreme Court. Sadly, politics and Mr. Petro’s majority on the Impeachment Committee show that this process is being ignored. When Petro finishes his term, he will be one of the most unpopular Latin American presidents.
What is the cause of this loss of public support: corruption scandals or his policies?
both. The corruption scandal undermined his credibility and exposed his willingness to lie throughout his career. Petro has ties to the political class and is part of that political class. He has never had any other special business that would generate wealth, and he enjoys what it means to earn a living from the state. Petro has never been paid a salary and does not know what it means to pay taxes. In addition to this, his reforms go against common sense in a country that has achieved, for example, a health system that is considered one of the best in the world, despite many challenges such as violence and successive economic crises. be. It is true that we must reform, but that is not the case. His health care reform means that some politicians in power may be unable to provide us with health care, require more control over individual patients, and require patients to request permission to undergo surgery. There is. Petro’s labor reforms will concentrate power in workers’ centers that are openly communist and encourage them to live off state perks. There is also pension reform, which, while necessary, should not attack individual savings or take away the ability to decide which pension funds to use. In short, it’s all about control: personal, health, work, retirement.
Could what we saw in Brazil be repeated in Colombia, with an election marred by possible electoral fraud?
As long as there is no transparency in pre-counting (rapid counting of polling stations on election day, purely informative) and vetting of votes, as long as the electoral register is fraudulent, it will not be cleansed and corruption will exist. If so, it may be a scam. Fortunately, Colombia continues to use manual voting rather than electronic voting, which has proven unworkable in some developed countries. Electronic and modern devices are also at risk of fraud. That’s why many countries, including Japan and Germany, have decided to return to paper or manual voting.
Faced with a high probability of defeat, are there more radical options, such as letting Colombia go the same way as Venezuela?
Of course it is. Petro has socialist policies dictated by the Cuban G2 (the Cuban government’s national intelligence agency) and, more seriously, talks with Iranian representatives. In Venezuela, a seemingly impossible marriage has been brewing for 15 years between Islam and communism, which have opposing aims but share the same guardians of the revolution and the same absolutism. They are systems that render individuals worthless. I think Petro is moving along that line: destroy official forces, strengthen coca grower groups, and allow cultivation. We know what it means to be the world’s largest exporter of cocaine, and what it means to experience levels of violence in both rural and urban areas that have already reached more than 100 massacres today. You already know. Peter triumphed in anarchy and destruction, and I believe he will take us further down that path.
Petro and Boric represent the “woke” line within the Puebla group. Did Petro try to bring “wokism” to Colombia? What is society’s reaction to this New Left ideology?
All “woke” ideologies are unnatural. It is the reward of depravity for good deeds. Again, this is an appeal to anarchy, an appeal to desire transformed into rights. This causes a public reaction similar to what happened to Boric in Chile. Borich finally ran out of outlets and used violence and exhausted society through sponsored protests whose sole purpose was to maintain his power and impose his agenda, including a new constitution. Peter does not succeed in such a thing and no longer has time to carry out such a plan. But Boric’s “wokism”, terrifying in a deeply conservative society like Chile, has already taken its toll. The same thing is happening in Colombia. It’s vulgar to have a gay porn actor as vice president. Peter thrives on anarchy, anarchy, and destruction, so he wants to drag us into a civil war.
As we have seen in many other countries, setbacks alone are not always enough to defeat the left. Do Colombia’s right-wing parties have the will to win and change things?
Politicians outside the right wing, and that is a very limited group, believe that they are capable and that the state is not there to place burdens on the shoulders of individuals or society, but rather to improve their lives. We have to show people that we’re there to make things easier. It’s about communication, and for all of us who aren’t on the left, that’s often a failing point. We thought it was enough to tell the truth without the need for propaganda, but no, we have to. do that. We must lead by example, teach and repeat thousands of times like Javier Millay. We can only move forward through free markets in much smaller countries and by providing accommodations for individuals. That is, by exploiting the keys to capitalism’s success.