Rodolfo Hernández announced that he would not take part in public debates and would maintain his commitment to social networks.JUAN BARRETO (AFP)
“Don’t steal, don’t lie, don’t tell…” and don’t argue. Rodolfo Hernández’s campaign relies on the snail’s strategy: hide until he wins the presidency of Colombia. Not participating in debates, disappearing from places where he has to face Gustavo Petro, seems to be the former Bucaramanga mayor’s main bet to reach the Casa de Nariño, the Presidential Palace. So far it has worked for him. Without doing so for the first round and avoiding revealing big details of his government plan, he received nearly six million votes on May 29. And now he has continued to grow in the most recent polls, to the point that he is ahead of the leader of the left.
“I will not participate in debates because I will not participate in those polarizing and hateful dynamics where the game is to destroy the other in a minute and a half. I will make better use of the time and present my ideas in interviews and through my social networks,” Hernandez said via Instagram and during the feminist debate, which was attended only by Petro. “Since May 29, Petro and his accomplices have taken an attacking position aimed at destroying me and my project,” stressed the candidate calling the union.
His decision not to attend presidential debates or mass gatherings has caused controversy. A group of women sent a letter to the National Electoral Council (CNE) to try to urge Hernández to attend the appointments. “Citizens have the right to listen to their programs and proposals,” said former Senator Angela María Robledo, who signed the letter. They are based on Law 996 of 2005, which requires candidates to participate in at least three presidential debates in institutional media. But he hides behind his staging on social networks, where he is known as “the old man of Tik Tok”, a place where he can control his narrative and repeat the phrases that have won him so much affection from the citizens : “End the thieves and the corrupt.
He had been doing it since the first round. Last March, a TV journalist also questioned him because, in a country with weak internet connection, he prefers social networks and does not participate in debates. “Don’t find it disrespectful to voters who don’t have internet access that your campaign is limited to digital and doesn’t go to the public square,” asks the reporter. Known for being choleric, the candidate aggressively replies: “Is it my fault these people don’t have internet or is it the fault of the thieves who ruled? answer, let’s see, answer me.”
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In the same press conference when he announced his candidacy, he had hinted at his strategy of not holding events in public places. “How many votes do you think it takes to win the presidency? You are only 10 million and you know that the demonstrations are pre-packaged and cost a lot of money,” he replied to reinforce his tough campaign image.
But it’s not just about thrift. According to his strategist Ángel Beccassino, it was a decision. “The street has three paths, one for public demonstrations, another for walking the street and the third, which we don’t work on due to lack of time, to knock on doors and create a feeling that the figure is in more than one was in the neighborhood. House”. With Rodolfo Hernández, they decided to take to the streets and take him to caravans with motorcycles and cars, where voters wear the Colombian shirt and blow vuvuzelas.
The street was crossed with a strategy for social networks that were not traditional networks, according to digital communications expert Perla Toro. “There were two battle scenarios: Tik Tok and geolocated WhatsApp groups with community managers willing to always listen to people. Instead of messing around with billboards and newspaper fights, they also created a website where a person can sign up and instantly join WhatsApp groups that are separated by community,” he explained. He was also committed to “gamification”, i.e. a game mechanic. This is also explained by Mario Sánchez, a volunteer for the rodolfista networks in Bogotá: “We work like recommendation marketing”, which means that you can network with other voters and invite more people.
The radio, specifically the village, was the other key, Hernández announced, and recalls former President Álvaro Uribe’s strategy during his first campaign when he gave interviews to local radio stations. In recent days, Hernández has given interviews to national radio, but also in a controlled manner, since he runs the risk of improvising and making statements that, according to Beccassino himself, later mean “damage limitation”. His mother, his wife and Formula Vice President Marelen Castillo also spoke. Not so much his children, one of whom implicated the father in an alleged case of improper execution of a public contract when he was mayor of Bucaramanga.
If in the first round Hernández was a puzzle; now he plays with being unpredictable. After politicians from the right backed him, he presented more moderate proposals calling for the political center. Via Twitter he has presented 20 keys that differentiate him from Uribismo, in which he mentions his support for the decriminalization of abortion (which is already law), the legalization of medical cannabis and the peace agreement. But the lack of coherence between his statements in the media, his social networks and his government plan is confusing voters.
“Before the CNE, we denounce the inconsistencies shown by Hernández regarding the document submitted as a presidential candidate and the proposals he is making in the media and networks. The proposal is very different from what he is hinting at now,” said Robledo, who led the women’s letter, in which she also criticized the “misogynistic and macho character that Hernández has expressed.” “Sexism kills, and these expressions of machismo and ignorance endanger women’s lives,” said the feminist politician.
But while part of the country is demanding he spell out his governing plan, the rest celebrates his language, which incessantly gives him votes. In the latest poll released this week, Hernandez led Petro at 52% to 44%. “My suggestion is not to steal from Colombians,” he said. It’s the idea he’s been promoting for months, and has garnered support from both the right and the center that have rallied around him either out of anti-Petrism or out of conviction.
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