Rodolfo Hernández, whom many consider “the Colombian Trump”, came to settle in the second round to compete with Gustavo Petro based on an anti-corruption discourse that he learned to dominate with ease on social networks like TikTok. Nevertheless, this civil engineer and businessman who sells himself as a political “outsider” has some 30 open investigations for attacks against public officials, and was accused by the Prosecutor’s Office in May of last year as being responsible for the crime of improper interest in the conclusion of contracts. This case refers to alleged irregularities in the implementation of new solid waste technologies.
Although the contract was not signed, according to witnesses, it sought to benefit a company and Luis Carlos Hernández, one of the candidate’s sons.. The 77-year-old engineer denies the accusations and maintains that they only seek to tarnish his image and prevent him from reaching the presidency.
Hernández resigned as mayor of Bucaramangathe capital of the department of Santander, in September 2019. The Attorney General’s Office suspended him from office for the second time accusing him of participating in politics, an activity prohibited by law in Colombia. The first suspension from office occurred at the end of 2018 when the then mayor hit a councilman, in an episode that went viral on social networks.
At the end of June of last year, Hernández announced that he would be running for president. Shortly after, the audio of an interview he had given to Noticias RCN in 2016 went viral in which he said: “I am a follower of a great German thinker called Adolf Hitler”. His few campaign proposals are limited to donate the salary of the president, close embassies, eliminate the presidential council on equality for women and take away official vehicles from congressmen.