The TikTok star and political chameleon vying for Colombia’s presidency

As mayor, he referred to as himself “the king,” punched a councilman who offended him and informed a metropolis worker pushing him to observe the principles that he’d wipe his personal buttocks with the regulation.

Rodolfo Hernández, a 77-year-old businessman and former mayor, has emerged as Colombia’s most disruptive presidential candidate in many years, electrifying voters with a single-issue “drain the swamp” message amplified by a workforce of social media wizards who’ve made him a TikTok star, permitting him to avoid the trimmings of typical campaigns.

He’s one in every of two remaining candidates in Sunday’s election for president of the third largest nation in Latin America, with the winner taking management at a pivotal second within the nation’s historical past.

“What the Colombian people really want is to rescue the entire public administration from the clutches of politicians,” he informed The New York Times. “I embody that.”

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The Trump-like determine was dismissive of his tendency to offend, together with calling Venezuelan girls a “factory for making poor children” and declaring himself a follower of the “great German thinker” Adolf Hitler.

“I say what I feel,” Mr. Hernández stated. “I’m not interested in the aftereffect.”

Still, he has clarified that he meant to say Albert Einstein.

As a candidate, Mr. Hernández has promoted himself as a paragon of democracy, a profitable businessman who makes good on guarantees and cares for the poor. But a visit to Bucaramanga, a mountain-fringed metropolis the place he constructed his empire and as soon as served as mayor, reveals a special image.

Mr. Hernández is an anti-corruption candidate who has been indicted on corruption fees, an austerity proponent whose slash-and-burn insurance policies led to a starvation strike by metropolis staff and a development magnate who as soon as pledged to construct 20,000 properties for the poor that by no means materialized.

In May, he achieved a shocking second place end within the first spherical of voting, beating out Federico Gutiérrez, a former large metropolis mayor backed by the conservative elite.

Mr. Hernández faces Gustavo Petro, a former insurgent and longtime senator who’s hoping to change into Colombia’s first leftist president.

Their victories replicate an anti-establishment fervor that has swept by means of Latin America, propelled by longstanding poverty and inequality which have intensified in the course of the pandemic.

The two are tied within the polls, and whoever wins is more likely to set the nation on a starkly new path. Mr. Petro has vowed to overtake the financial system by enormously increasing social packages and taxing the wealthy. Mr. Hernández has proposed “total austerity” and says he’ll declare a state of emergency to deal with corruption, prompting fears that he may shut down Congress or droop native officers.

“We will do everything by reason and law,” Mr. Hernández promised. “Nothing by force.”

Bucaramanga, town on the middle of one of many nation’s largest metropolitan areas, sits 250 miles north of Bogotá, the capital. It is a spot the place residents say that being direct and “unbuttoned” varieties a part of the tradition.

No one in Bucaramanga, it appears, is ambivalent about Mr. Hernández, and a point out of him sometimes elicits hyperbolic acclaim or a stream of unprintable insults.

Mr. Hernández’s supporters describe him as a savior who erased town’s deficit, renegotiated contracts to profit taxpayers and broke a cycle of political favors that had turned Bucaramanga right into a capital of corruption.

His critics name him a hazard to democracy, an evangelist of a brutal capitalism that can wreck the nation and a person with few agency coverage concepts who will do no matter it takes to get his manner.

“What awaits this country is a dictatorship,” stated César Fontecha, a former authorized adviser to town’s trash firm who stated that Mr. Hernández as soon as referred to as him in a match of rage, demanding he assist approve a contract riddled with authorized issues.

Today, Mr. Hernández faces corruption fees in that case, accused of pushing subordinates to make sure a selected firm received a take care of town. According to the inspector basic’s workplace, that contract may have earned his son important cash.

Mr. Hernández’s trial begins July 21. He has stated he’s harmless.

“I didn’t steal anything,” he stated. “That’s why I’m calm, with a transparent conscience.’’

Growing up in Piedecuesta, a colonial-era city outdoors Bucaramanga, Mr. Hernández was the oldest of 4 boys, and his dad and mom owned a cigar manufacturing facility, a tailor store and a sugar cane farm, making them among the many most profitable households locally.

Mario Carvajal, a longtime pal of the candidate, recalled Mr. Hernández’s mom as “extremely demanding” and “impulsive.” If a younger Rodolfo didn’t do his work, he stated, “she beat him with whatever she could find.”

Mr. Hernández studied engineering, later began a development firm that constructed low-cost housing after which moved into finance, appearing as vendor and lender and providing rates of interest far beneath native banks.

Eventually, his household drew consideration from insurgent teams that kidnapped folks for ransom. First, they took his father, forcing the household to pay for his return. Then, in keeping with Mr. Hernández, they took his solely daughter, Juliana.

This time, Mr. Hernández refused to pay, saying it might solely encourage extra kidnapping. Juliana by no means returned.

Asked by a neighborhood radio station if he regretted his resolution, he stated: “On the one hand, yes, and with a lot of pain. And on the other hand, no, because if we’d paid they would have come for Socorro, my wife.”

Félix Jaimes, a longtime pal and adviser, referred to as Mr. Hernández extraordinarily involved for the much less lucky and “obsessed with accomplishing goals.”

Mr. Hernández ran for mayor of Bucaramanga in 2015, sweeping into workplace on an anti-corruption and austerity platform that led him to even take away the chairs from town corridor cafeteria.

He lower job contracts and slashed salaries, together with that of José del Carmen, 59, a union chief.

In response, employees constructed a protest camp that lasted for months, after which began a starvation strike that lasted six days.

“He was the workers’ executioner,” stated Mr. del Carmen.

Mr. Hernández now faces fees of violating union rights throughout his time as mayor. The subsequent part of this trial begins July 26. He has denied the fees.

In a Bucaramanga workplace of white tables and minimalist artwork that includes black-and-white scenes of poverty, the Hernández marketing campaign is run by a military of volunteers: self-described “Rodolfistas.”

Mr. Hernández’s marketing campaign slogan — “don’t rob, don’t lie, don’t cheat” — is painted on one wall, and a cutout of the candidate stands on the entrance.

During the marketing campaign, Mr. Hernández has prevented most debates and has held few public occasions, favoring interviews with pleasant media and reside streams run by his allies. Yet he has energized broad swaths of the citizens, together with his advisers saying that he has understood the second.

For a technology, the nation has been run by a hard-right motion based by former President Álvaro Uribe. His political allies, generally known as Uribistas, have been as soon as lionized, however they’ve misplaced recognition amid allegations of human rights abuses, corruption scandals and rising poverty.

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For Colombians fed up with Uribismo however turned off by Mr. Petro’s leftist proposals, Mr. Hernández is the proper candidate: self-financed and seemingly unbiased, a forward-looking man with the identical ambitions for Colombia as he has for his private empire.

“He’s going to come through for us,” stated Héctor Bonilla, 58. “I see it in his face, his sincerity when he speaks.”

Alfonso Morales, 64, a watchman who lives in a small shack close to the highest of a steep hill in Bucaramanga, has a special take.

As a candidate for mayor, Mr. Hernández distributed letters to town’s poorest residents asserting a program referred to as “20,000 Happy Homes” that he promised can be a actuality if elected.

The properties have been by no means constructed. “He lied to us,” stated Mr. Morales. “I beg the Colombian people not to vote for this man.”

Mr. Hernández has continued to make such pledges. Inside Piedecuesta’s principal park, he’s constructed a glossy mannequin house labeled the “fortune house,” meant to function a marketing campaign commercial, and he has employed an actual property agent to promote it.

Inside the home sooner or later, the agent informed guests {that a} house like this is able to be out there to them at a low value and low rates of interest — so long as Mr. Hernández received.