‘It is false that we are going to end zero tuition, subsidies, social programs’: interview with José Manuel Restrepo

José Manuel Restrepo, vice-presidential candidate running mate of Abelardo de la Espriella, spoke in an interview with EL TIEMPO about what lies ahead for the campaign in the second round for the Presidency, which will take place on June 21.

Exactly what we said would happen happened: there is a genuine popular movement here, the most important one Colombia has today, which even won the support of the people over Petro himself. Citizens are overwhelmed by violence, extortion, and insecurity in their neighborhoods. Abelardo de la Espriella spoke to them directly about that. Colombians want independence, they want an outsider, and in this candidacy they found an academic and a businessman who offer them a real alternative to address the needs of the most vulnerable: health, education, housing, work. That is what is reflected in the numbers.

We are sure that we will win in the second round, and that implies hard work that we are already doing. We will travel the country, through the media, to win over Colombia with concrete proposals in infrastructure, social issues, the environment, housing, and the economy. And, above all, we will contrast: the misery homeland of Cepeda, Quilcué, and Petro versus the miracle homeland. The misery homeland is the destruction of democracy, institutions, private initiative, and a systematic attack on freedoms. The miracle homeland is hope, defense of the 1991 Constitution, a commitment to business, to the merit of those who study and work hard, and an active social policy. Everything else they have been accusing us of these days is fake news. We speak with proposals and with the truth.

I handed over the country and I know exactly what Petro destroyed. The diagnosis is simple: Colombia costs 545 trillion, receives income of 300. The difference is financed with debt, but that has a limit. Today we have the worst level of gross debt in the country’s history, even above the pandemic year. The solution is less spending and more income, there is no other. That means reducing the size of the State, and the General System of Participations law and the competencies law impose that on us almost as an obligation. Second, there are resources served on the table: about 150 trillion in tax expenditure, 100 trillion in evasion and smuggling, and another 100 trillion in corruption. If you truly control those leaks, with effective measures and not announcements, a significant additional source of resources appears. And third, we have to grow. Petro stopped growth when he attacked Ecopetrol, the hydrocarbons sector, mining, housing and construction, and private initiative. We are going to start the engines: agroindustry, sustainable tourism, knowledge-based services, digital economy, energy sector, infrastructure, and housing. Eliminating unnecessary procedures and obstacles is an essential part of the path. Improving income and reducing expenses: that is the only way out.

It serves a lot, because it shows that Abelardo de la Espriella is already seen as the future president of the Republic. It is support from the U.S. Government to someone who represents the values of democracy and respect for private initiative. By opposition, Cepeda represents statization, attacks on institutions, and a constituent assembly that will destroy democracy. What better than to start with that relationship already rebuilt with the United States, our main trading partner? More than 50 billion dollars in foreign trade, more than 5.5 billion in foreign direct investment, more than one million three hundred thousand American tourists per year. That is very positive. And it is the prelude to what can be built, for example, in the recovery of democracy in Venezuela. Something similar happens with Ecuador, whose president Noboa is already beginning to recognize Abelardo’s future government. What Petro was not able to resolve with diplomacy, we are resolving before coming to power.

I say it with total calm: on Sunday, the tone had to be very strong regarding a problem that had never happened before in the history of democracy in Colombia. When a head of state interferes in the electoral campaign to support a candidate with tweets and statements, it is unacceptable. It is not only illegal, it is unacceptable. We cannot allow what has never happened in the history of this country to happen, which is the President’s intervention in a political campaign. Another issue was when Gustavo Petro and Iván Cepeda disregarded the election results, which is also unacceptable. Disregarding electoral results is an attack on democracy. So, you also have to speak firmly to Colombians to say that we cannot tolerate attacks on democracy and institutions, and when there is illegal and improper interference in politics. That cannot be allowed.

The shock plan requires resources, approximately ten trillion pesos, which must come from the system itself. From where? There are almost four trillion that were improperly slipped into the capitation payment unit for administrative expenses and electoral campaigns with basic health teams. There are three trillion supposedly allocated to hospital infrastructure that ended up neither contracted nor executed. And there are poorly invested resources from the Adres that must be redirected to medicines and care. Besides that, doctors and nursing assistants have gone eight, nine months without receiving their pay. That has to end. A good Health Minister and an active superintendent, who demands from each EPS week by week the undelivered medicines, rescheduled surgeries, pending appointments, that can be done. I did it with Fernando Ruiz during the pandemic. And, in parallel, the medium term must be worked on: paying the accumulated debt, issuing long-term debt to finance the cleanup, improving data analytics, and truly strengthening primary care, promotion, and prevention.

We are not looking for politicians, and Colombians are not naive either, because citizens’ votes do not belong to political bosses. That no longer works. Our relationship has always been directly with the Colombian people. To those who voted for Fajardo, Claudia López, Paloma Valencia, we say: you also suffer from the deterioration of health, the disappearance of interest rate subsidies, the withering of Icetex, the end of social interest housing subsidies. You also want security. Cepeda’s campaign has tried to sow fear with lies: that we will end zero tuition, subsidies, social programs. It is false. I created zero tuition, and I gave it long-term financing. We will not eliminate it. We will improve the senior citizen subsidy, not cut it. The benefits already won by the working class are respected. What we will do is give better conditions to micro-entrepreneurs so they can sustain those costs. To Cepeda I say: come debate public policy, not run a campaign of lies.

Petro and Cepeda leave the blackout cooked. That is the reality. Our immediate task is to make the maximum effort so that it does not materialize. How? Returning to technical rigor in the Energy and Gas Regulation Commission, doing real public management over generation and transmission projects, eliminating connection monopolies that hinder projects. That management will require streamlined environmental licenses and reviewing the community consultation model so that the State actively intervenes in those processes, preventing them from becoming spaces for blackmailing the private sector. If there is extortion disguised as consultation, the Prosecutor’s Office should intervene. All gas projects, onshore and offshore, must be accelerated, small hydroelectric plants that can enter quickly activated, and in 2027 call a reliability charge auction with technological neutrality: wind, solar, hydro, gas, all. The path is one: accelerate, manage, and maximize installed generation and transmission capacity.

Yes. We have a fear of vote buying in the Caribbean region, through some identified political actors. Abelardo has publicly denounced it and will continue doing so before national authorities and also before the United States, because many of those resources come from drug trafficking. Let it be clear: those who intervene in that way expose themselves to the Clinton List, the FAC list, and the consequences that has for them and their families. Second, in the south of the country there are atypically high results in favor of the Historic Pact that suggest influence from criminal actors. We ask the Public Force to intervene in those territories and prevent armed groups from forcing the vote. And to Colombians, a call to vote massively, because the only response to vote buying and criminal pressure is overwhelming participation.