The embattled Char family, a beneficiary of a historically favorable Latin American emigration policies for Middle Eastern groups, has regained the mayoral post of Barranquilla, Colombia’s most important port city.
Barranquilla is a significant port city located in northern Colombia, at the mouth of the Magdalena River. Its strategic location near the Caribbean Sea makes it an important hub for trade and commerce. Historically, the importation of cocaine has taken place from Barranquilla to Panama and ultimately Europe or the United States through legal means usurped for drug trafficking.
As a port city, Barranquilla serves as a major gateway for the export and import of goods, including agricultural products, industrial goods, and raw materials. The port facilities in Barranquilla handle a wide range of commodities, such as coffee, bananas, petroleum, coal, and chemicals. While one does not seriously consider the halt of drug trafficking possible, mitigating the actions of unlawful actors who dabble in electoral fraud and the like, will even the playing field for legitimate businesses that don’t tamper with the law constantly both in Mexico and Colombia.
First Days in Office: Char Request Petro Turn on the Money Spigot for Construction Projects
In public declarations following his victory, Char requested that President Petro grant him vast concessions for the development of hydrogen production plant, wind turbine plants and other infrastructure projects that require vast amounts of construction expenses. One can imagine how easily those budgets could fall into certain hands.
Petro’s response to the candidate’s surprise win has been muted, although, some light anti-electoral fraud activities were taken up.
The open and explicit, almost immediate, request for presidential backing on infrastructure projects is jarring to say the least. The reason being is that Char has already been linked to a construction contractor named Hector Amaris Rodriguez, whose affectionately known as ‘Yogui Bear’, by his local connections. President Petro called out the quid-pro-quo relationship between Char and Hector Amaris Rodriguez, who is alleged to have received money from Hector numerous times. In fact, this was considered principal function as well as creating front companies to launder funds. These are alleged to have originated from El Mayo’s Sinaloa Cartel.
Legacy
According to Forbes, the Char family is a local dynasty in the fourth largest city of Colombia. Their collective wealth is among the country’s top 10. Good things don’t happen by accident, of course.
The Char’s have maintained their grip on local politics for decades. Alejandro Char has already been mayor of Barranquilla twice before, but local electoral law prevents a mayor holding office three consecutive terms in a row. His predecessor was considered a figurehead.
Like in Mexico City, neglected areas of Barranquilla have canals that overfill and drench even the middle-class neighborhoods, leading to massive flooding that requires a 4×4 most cannot afford to commute.
Trash can be observed at the outskirt and the flooding is commonly attributed to resources for infrastructure mostly dedicated to the soccer stadium.
Cynical Markets
Many banking analysts look at the losses posted by President Petro’s party with glee. They assume that a conservative group will lead to increased governance. I think they confuse personal benefit with rule of law.
According to AFP, the 90 percent voter share may not be entirely due to his political platform. It could be the 70,000 COP given per voter reported by the Agence France Press. Thus, the trend change isn’t an organic one that validates doing business in a corrupt area. Instead, Petro’s opposition revamped their coffers and went back to the same electoral playbook they’ve already confessed to use in peace negotiations between the FARC, paramilitaries and drug traffickers colluding with both.
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