WORLD NEWS: Presidential election in Colombia: Ivan Cepeda, defender of human rights and social reforms
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Deputy in 2010, senator since 2014, Ivan Cepeda, a 63-year-old philosophy professor, plans to become, on June 21 against far-right candidate Abelardo de la Espriella, the second left-wing president in the history of Colombia. The left-wing contender for the presidency is the son of a communist senator assassinated in the 1990s by police allied with the paramilitaries, a founding act of a life dedicated to the defense of human rights. Read alsoPresidential election in Colombia: Trump’s interference at the heart of the second round debates The violence targeting left-wing leaders at that time forced him to go into exile at the age of three in Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria and Cuba. Upon his return to Colombia, he became involved in defending victims of the armed conflict and played a key role in negotiating the historic 2016 peace agreement with the guerrilla Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc). “I survived genocide, stigma and relentless persecution. And I am still here, standing,” he said during the campaign, wearing a traditional round-necked Caribbean shirt worn without a tie. A relationship of trust with the guerrilla leaders His political opponents qualify him without evidence as “heir to the Farc” because of the relationship of trust he established with the guerrilla leaders during the peace process. They also accuse him of having been the ideologue of the policy of “total peace” (negotiation with the different armed groups) desired by Gustavo Petro which, according to experts, has led to the strengthening of armed groups in recent years. This man with the thin mustache and small glasses is an admirer of Gandhi, has written books on Sigmund Freud and Michel Foucault and describes himself as “progressive”. He advocates the continuation of the social reforms initiated by Gustavo Petro, which he describes as “revolutions”, including a significant increase in the minimum wage. Read alsoPresidential election in Colombia: two radically opposed visions clash in the second round “We have come to deepen the reforms and accelerate the social transformations that the country urgently demands in order to make them irreversible,” he proclaimed during the campaign. During his meetings, he frequently surrounds himself with indigenous people, peasants and victims of the Colombian armed conflict, which has lasted for more than six decades. A placid tone and a reserved attitude Other deaths have marked his life: that of his mother, who died at age 37 of a brain tumor, and the assassination, while he was a presidential candidate, of his political godfather Bernardo Jaramillo Ossa, in 1990. He is known for his skepticism and his apparent calm as a man who never loses control of his emotions. Although he lived in the Soviet bloc, he rejects communism and focuses on “productive” and “diversified capitalism”. His placid tone, his reserved attitude contrast with the verve and vehemence of the provocative Gustavo Petro, ex-guerrilla member. Ivan Cepeda is “a strategist who thinks in the long term” and “no one can shake him off his hinges”, judges his friend Leon Valencia, author of the book “Ivan Cepeda, a life against oblivion”, interviewed by AFP. Read alsoColombia: Abelardo de la Espriella, the “Tiger” adept at strong-arm tactics against armed groups Ivan Cepeda is the sworn enemy of the great figure of the Colombian right, ex-president Alvaro Uribe (2002-2010). With Gustavo Petro, they spearheaded fierce debates in Parliament where they denounced the links between Alvaro Uribe and paramilitary groups. At the end of a legal procedure lasting more than a decade, Senator Cepeda demonstrated that the former head of state had bribed paramilitaries, causing him to be sentenced to 12 years of house arrest. A sentence subsequently annulled. Ivan Cepeda had to fight against cancer and a liver tumor and admitted in 2022 to having “been afraid of dying”, but today assures that he is in perfect health. With AFP
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Source: This article was originally published by France 24 – Infos, news & actualités – L'information internationale en direct and adapted for our international English-speaking audience.
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