Latin American Program in the News: "Colombia: unas elecciones de bostezo"
In this interview with Club de Prensa's Juan Carlos Iragorri, Mauricio Vargas, who spoke at the Latin American Program's Elections in Latin America event, discusses the upcoming elections in Colombia. This interview is in Spanish.
During this interview with Club de Prensa's Juan Carlos Iragorri, Mauricio Vargas, who spoke at the Latin American Program's Elections in Latin America event, analyzes the upcoming elections in Colombia.
In Vargas's view, this will be the most boring election since the time of the Frente Nacional. He attributes this to the fact that incumbent President Juan Manuel Santos is widely expected to win, and to a lack of charisma among the candidates. However, he also notes that the tone of the campaign obscures real differences between supporters of former President Uribe and the current president.
Vargas also discusses the results of a recent poll of likely voters which show Santos significantly ahead of other candidates, despite polling behind blank votes. According to Vargas, some of the voters who intend to cast blank votes will do so because they are hard core supporters of Uribe; however, others will do so out of indifference towards all the candidates. This is the first poll to show a lead for blank votes, which, Vargas argues, corresponds to a general disenchantment with political leaders in Colombia.
Watch the entire interview here.
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Latin America Program
The Wilson Center’s prestigious Latin America Program provides non-partisan expertise to a broad community of decision makers in the United States and Latin America on critical policy issues facing the Hemisphere. The Program provides insightful and actionable research for policymakers, private sector leaders, journalists, and public intellectuals in the United States and Latin America. To bridge the gap between scholarship and policy action, it fosters new inquiry, sponsors high-level public and private meetings among multiple stakeholders, and explores policy options to improve outcomes for citizens throughout the Americas. Drawing on the Wilson Center’s strength as the nation’s key non-partisan policy forum, the Program serves as a trusted source of analysis and a vital point of contact between the worlds of scholarship and action. Read more
