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Mixed balance for youth candidates in Congressional elections

By Manuel Rueda, Editorial Director

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Several young candidates around the ages of 35 attempted to enter the Colombian Senate in last week´s elections promising to refresh the country´s political scene to tackle corruption and to find ways to expand social rights like employment opportunities.

However, it seems only those with the most political connections managed to get elected.

U Party candidate Pierre Onzaga, who organized a successful protest against the FARC guerrillas in 2008 which was attended by millions, promised to use his Senate seat to “permanently mobilize the population against the FARC,” while modifying the constitution to “shut down the doors of any elected office to former members of the FARC and other armed groups.” 

I initially thought that young Colombians – who feel mostly resentment against the FARC --  would identify with Onzaga´s obsession with eliminating the guerrillas and that his Uribista rhetoric, combined with the gelled hair, the black blazer, and strikingly white shirt he wears in his campaign posters, would win him many votes.

To my surprise, this right wing candidate who had the support of Colombia´s most popular party failed in his senate bid, getting only a paltry 3,600 votes.

One of Onzaga´s problems may have been the lack of money for his campaign and the lack of sponsors.  After all, running a senate campaign is more expensive than organizing anti-FARC protests through Facebook.

 Green Party candidate Michel Maya had the same problem.  At age thirty he was the youngest senate candidate in the country and most of his campaign funding seemed to come from his dad´s mid-sized pharmacy chain. 

Still, Maya´s promises of “solidarity”, “treating public money as if it was sacred”, and “focusing on the development of the human being”, captured twice as many votes as Onzaga´s “no more FARC” nonsense. 

Perhaps that means Colombia is moving in the right direction and that some voters are actually inspired more by human values than by hate towards a specific group, no matter how terrible it is.

But Maya, who was working for his dad´s pharmaceutical company before deciding to run for senate, did not even get close to a senate seat with a mere 7,600 votes. 

Neither did Maria Piedada “mapi” Velasco, a Harvard graduate in her thirties, who has worked for more than a decade as a public servant helping Colombian small and medium enterprises to modernize themselves and find export markets.

Mapi´s campaign became famous for using cartoons through which an animated version of herself criticized the corrupt practices of the political establishment such as vote buying and the use of illegal voting networks.  This brilliant and creative woman only managed to gain around 8,500 votes.

However, two guys in their thirties appeared to prove that it is possible to be young and intelligent and to reach the Colombian senate.

The most conventional of the two is U party candidate, Mauricio Lizcano, a member of the House of Representatives from the State of Caldas, who has been involved in politics since he was a university student leader.  Lizcano comes from a political family and he has worked in local government in Manizales since 1997.  He obtained over 40,000 votes to become a Senator.

Camilo Romero took a more unconventional path to the Senate.  This thirty three year old from the uninspiring border town of Ipiales started to become active in public affairs when he became the editor of a student newspaper in the city of Cali.

Romero then became one of the founders of a civic protest movement called Tienen Huevo or “they have balls”.

Like “the onion” in the US or “private eye” in the UK, “tienen huevo” published a political satire website that made fun of Colombia´s political elite, focusing especially on the corrupt practices of local politicians. 

The movement organized public events where citizens were invited to throw eggs at posters featuring the pictures of Colombia´s most despised politicians, and on a couple occasions, its members actually had the chance to throw eggs at the politicians themselves as they gave lectures in universities.

Romero, who also worked as a journalist for Venezuelan TV Network TELESUR, founded an “independent movement” within the left wing Polo Democratico Party which won several seats in that party´s last internal congress.

When election time arrived, Romero travelled throughout western Colombia making alliances with social movements and indigenous groups and was thus able to secure a senate seat with  44,000 votes.

Being young, intelligent, trendy, or popular seems to be only of secondary importance when it comes to Colombian politics.  The important thing, it seems, are political connections and links with different social groups.  

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