Journal of Haiti and the Americas

Presidential election in Colombia: an uncertain ballot

Audio 7:30 p.m.

Colombian presidential candidates Gustavo Petro and Rodolfo Hernandez speak with Reuters and the media in Bogota, Colombia June 10, 2022 and May 24, 2022. © REUTERS - LUISA GONZALEZ

By: Mikael Ponge

2 mins

An unprecedented poster, two promises of radical change, and a result that promises to be very disputed.

Sunday, June 19, 2022, Colombia will choose its new president: leftist opponent Gustavo Petro or independent businessman Rodolfo Hernandez.

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48 hours before the vote, the latest polls see the two candidates neck and neck, between 46 and 48% of the voting intentions.

Figures that are surprising.

after the first round, all Colombian political analysts were betting on a huge anti-Petro front.

But, it is clear that Rodolfo Hernandez has a hard time embodying this dam supposed to prevent the coming to power of Colombia's first left-wing president.

A disenchantment which is explained by a campaign between the two towers which was above all marked by low blows.

Very many voters feel represented neither by the former guerrilla turned social democrat Petro, nor by the millionaire entrepreneur with TikTok slogans, Hernandez.

Many in Colombia fear acts of violence if the left is defeated.

Ecuador: Guillermo Lasso calls for calm

On the fourth day of road blockades in Ecuador, Thursday June 16, 2022, the indigenous protest movement against the rising cost of living has spread to the transport sector and students, and negotiations seem for the time being in the dead end.

Access to two main supply markets in the capital Quito is blocked, as are many roads in 15 of the country's 24 provinces.

Launched on Monday (June 13, 2022) by the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador, the largest organization of indigenous peoples which is calling in particular for lower fuel prices, no way out of the crisis seems to be in sight despite the assurances of President Guillermo Lasso , Wednesday (June 15, 2022), saying “open the doors of dialogue”.

Haiti: Livres folie finds its audience

Yesterday, Thursday June 16, 2022, the 28th edition of Livres en folie was held in Port-au-Prince.

The event had only existed virtually for two years, because of the Covid, then because of insecurity.

For this return, the organizers wanted to bring the greatest event in literature to life, a huge challenge taken up in the face of the crisis context and the multiplication of kidnappings.

Simple happiness, for the love of books.

A hundred authors in signature did not hide their pleasure.

Report by

And on the front page of the Journal de la 1ère

Drought “sets in” in Guadeloupe.

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