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A few days before the first round of presidential elections in Colombia, the candidate for the far left, former guerrilla Gustavo Petro, is leading the national polls. To discuss the possible implications of his victory on the economy, our co-editor-in-chief, Orlando Avendaño, interviewed Colombian economist and columnist, Alberto Bernal.
Bernal highlights the importance of the upcoming presidential elections given that this is the first time Colombia faces a “real risk” of being taken over by the far left. Therefore, the event should “make all Colombians think.”
“I insist, Gustavo Petro is not a democrat,” said Alberto Bernal. “Gustavo Petro is a person who has extremely aggressive ideas from a social, economic point of view, from the point of view of democracy.”
A Petro presidency, according to Bernal’s opinion, could have long-term negative results for Colombia’s democratic stability. The economist suggests that, if Petro’s project is carried out, Colombians will regret it in the next twenty years.
Bernal considers Petro’s government program to be “a supermarket list of good intentions,” loaded with utopias and ” ghostly proposals” that takes advantage of the ignorance of the majority of the people on how the economy works.
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