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!Viva El Presidente!

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dliss62
  9/14/2017 15:40 EST

Looking at the below recent poll, I recall Gustavo Petro as a die hard socialist. This scares me because of what happened in Venezuela, but he is nowhere as "charming" as Hugo Chavez.

I ponder how each of these candidates will affect expats and the upper classes? Too soon to tell how this race will end, but one of these candidates will be "El Presidente!"

Colombia’s leading presidential candidates:

1.Gustavo Petro (11.2%)
2.Sergio Fajardo (9.6%)
3.Clara Lopez (8.3%)
4.German Vargas (6.7%)
5.Juan Manuel Galan (5.6%)

pocopelo
  9/14/2017 16:47 EST

A well known plastic surgeon who campaigns for a clean environment, sounds benign but who knows when someone gets a taste of power

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regnatarajan
  9/14/2017 17:08 EST

I'm a one-issue guy: corruption. Santos achieved Paz. I know many here disagree with that but it is what it is and there is now paz. The next thing to tackle is corruption or nothing Colombia does will have a foundation to stand on. No point in doing trade deals if you have to pay people off to get your shipments through the ports. No point doing infrastructure programs if you have a bunch of crooks on the take at every stage of development.

Colombia needs:

1. A standardized government procurement system based on public tenders, an independent audit agency that takes anonymous complaints from the public

2. A system wherein anyone involved in the transfer of government money of any kind (either on the granting or receiving end) relinquishes their right to privacy on their personal banking and finances and undergoes heavy scrutiny from that independent audit agency before and up to 10 years after that government money is awarded.

3. Any unusual payments to or property acquisitions by anyone involved in the money-granting process should immediately trigger an investigation. The public should be able to make anonymous tips about people receiving these bribes. Even if the payments are made to offshore accounts, at some point the crook usually wants to buy a hot car or big house back in Colombia and that should immediately trigger an investigation.

Get this under control next and there's no limit to how far Colombia could go.

dliss62
  9/14/2017 17:43 EST

@regnatarajan

Agree on all points!
Corruption remains Colombia’s biggest problem and the FARC; many claim has held back Colombia from becoming an economic superpower.

Take infrastructure, it cost more to ship a container from Cartagena to Bogota than it cost to ship one to China! That's because Colombia’s infrastructure is atrocious and in a state of decay. This is primarily due the government’s focused attention and resources to decades of conflict. Pile on corruption and mismanagement by the political class, and you have a country that has enormous natural resources, access to two oceans and unlimited potential, but has been suppressed.

Perhaps things may change for the better since there will be no conflict, but I’m weary of any type of strongman or radical leader emerging
.
Yeah, I know…we got TRUMP! Could happen here too!

ponymalta
  9/15/2017 09:10 EST

Actually the measures discussed are probably the opposite of what Colombia needs most. More government procedures on top of the already onerous government procedures, just curtails more legal business and provides more complication the corrupt can take advantage of.

Unfortunately the culture is such that few real changes will ever be made, corruption is part of the very fabric of Colombia. And the government make sit so cumbersome and expensive to operate legally in many sectors, perversely encourages more illegal business whether drugs or smuggling or mining.

cafetero
  9/15/2017 14:10 EST

Have you noticed how almost never does a government project get finished? I was in Cali a while back and there is a long string of towers installed for a cable car network that never got finished. And between Armenia and Ibague is a huge highway project that got started and sputtered after only a short time. Mile after mile off in the jungle you can see parts of bridges that got built that don´t connect to anything. and there are several tunnels carved through mountains with just a pile of rubble at the entrance, no highway to connect to. They must have spent billions on this project and it looks like its only about a third done and it has been abandoned long enough that trees are growing in the crevices. I was astounded that the did so much and yet they are only about a third done. They must have run out of money through bribes and theft and collision. It might have even been a big conspiracy to begin with. Same as the 100,000 houses that Santos pledged to build. When they went to get the money to start construction they found the bank account was empty.

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LaPiranha
  9/15/2017 14:27 EST

Cafetero ..... I think that's worthy of a separate thread all of its own.

WhoaNellie
  9/15/2017 14:31 EST

I take your point and largely agree, cafetero, but I must point out that the cable car project in Cali was finished and is in operation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YilBFrY9yfM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0cURlJp51A

Of course so many other of the megaobras scheduled and partially funded for Cali have never been finished, and are commonly called megarobos...

SkyMan
  9/15/2017 16:04 EST

Reg...I agree with your post. My only comment is that Latin America & Corruption have always been very good bed fellows...and will continue to be...en el futuro. And yes...Colombia is a sleeping economic giant. Buena Suerte ! Tranquilo.

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