As in the plot of a horror story, Rodolfo Hernández seems to be an evil character who, freed from a spell, returns to earth to torment and destroy the lives of his fellow countrymen. Where did this real-life character come from, who embodies the worst that Colombia has produced? How is it possible that all the evils that Colombia has experienced, even when it was not called Colombia, are concentrated in a single character?
Let’s start with the character, people insist on calling him “engineer”, as an honorific title, however, he used engineering to enrich himself by constructing buildings for the poorest, squeezing every penny out of them. A video is circulating all over the networks where Rodolfo Hernandez, laughing cynically, says: “15 years a little man paying me interest, that’s a delight”.
This shows that he has assimilated very well one of the great Colombian evils: Getting rich without lifting a finger, at the expense of the work of others. Some will say that this is a business practice, but for this man it is a practice of perversion. Let’s see: First he uses the word “little man”, in this case a derogatory diminutive, for the person who had the misfortune to buy a house from this individual. Secondly, he enjoys as a psychopath would enjoy tormenting his victim. For him “it is a delight” that a person has to work 15 years to pay the interest that he has put for the purchase of a house in installments, that is to say, he enjoys the exploitation of the work of others. At least a bank that can do the same does not come out and say how much it enjoys exploiting its customers.
But this is only part of his personality. Rodolfo Hernandez uses vulgar language to intimidate and frighten the people he is talking to. Rodolfo Hernandez’s language is a form of violence and corresponds exactly to the profile of people who, through harassment or bullying, try to subdue their victims.
In the article “The type profiles in bullying: victim, aggressor, instigators and passive spectators” of the International University of Valencia, some traits of the bully are described, in this case in schools, which could correspond to the type of bullying practiced by Hernandez, but at a macro level, among them:
1- “Irritable and aggressive personality.
2- Low self-control.
3- Absence of empathy.
4-Tendency to violent and threatening behaviors.
5-Impulsive.
6- Their academic performance is usually low. Sometimes it is somewhat higher than the rest of the class for having repeated one or more courses.
7-His behavior in the classroom is characterized by outbursts, jokes out of place and even defiant attitudes towards teachers and classmates.
8- He may belong to a dysfunctional family, with a history of domestic violence.
9- Physically strong.
10- Assumes the role of leader of a group of students with similar psychological characteristics or seeking recognition and integration in the group.”
(see: https://www.universidadviu.com/es/actualidad/nuestros-expertos/los-perfiles-tipo-en-el-bullying-victima-agresor-instigadores-y)
Points 1 to 5 correspond to Hernandez’s personality, just watch the videos where he shows himself irritable and aggressive, out of control, he has no empathy for the people he is hurting, we have seen him acting violently (he hits a man in the head because he disagrees with him) and threatening “I’ll shoot him”. Point 6 “His academic performance is usually low” is more than demonstrated: He does not study, he does not know the country, “Vichada, what is that?”, as he does not study, he plagiarizes, he plagiarized AMLO’s campaign slogans. (see: https://www.infobae.com/america/colombia/2022/06/02/lema-de-campana-de-rodolfo-hernandez-seria-un-plagio-al-actual-presidente-de-mexico/
The classroom for Hernandez is the country, the plazas, the media where he always uses challenging language to intimidate the reporter or interlocutor. In point 8, we don’t know much about his family, only that his mother enjoys the sound of bullets and that she handles firearms. We skip point 9 and go to 10, “He assumes the role of leader of a group of students with similar psychological characteristics”, here he wants to be the leader of the country and to do so he is bullying people with similar psychological characteristics who are represented by the one who will undoubtedly be his future victimizer.
However, the type of harassment or “bullying” that Hernandez practices goes beyond that which would be practiced in a school classroom, since he has destroyed the lives of thousands of families through his scams in construction projects of houses that have been poorly built and that the State has had to assume the costs of completion of the same, since he dissolved his company to not be responsible for anything (see: https://www.lasillavacia.com/la-silla-vacia/detector-de-mentiras/detector:-constructora-de-rodolfo-s%C3%AD-fue-hallada-responsable-de-daños-en-viviendas?fbclid=IwAR2TwlpnI5tT4InPnT7ROL7kN6Cu5tNoQxPddSBNlGL6G5mYVv9uwbaoVs&fs=e&s=cl).
Hernandez is a big-time stalker, harassing the victims of his scams. He speaks as any Popeye would speak referring to his victims, the goal is always to dehumanize the opposite, a technique used by the lumpen, whether they are robbers or hitmen when they are going to commit their crimes or refer to them. In one of his conversations, he tells one of his victims in the real estate business: “Keep fucking me, motherfucker. I’ll give you your shot, motherfucker”. Here, rather than intimidating, he is threatening to kill the person he is talking to because he is supposedly “damaging the image of his construction company”. (see: https://www.kienyke.com/politica/rodolfo-hernandez-frases-mas-polemicas) How is it possible that the media and the justice system overlook the fact that candidate Hernandez, like any drug trafficker, is threatening to kill the people he has swindled? Shouldn’t he be denounced, prosecuted and perhaps sent to jail for that?
As we can see, he is not only a violent and harassing character, since he threatens death to those who do not follow his precepts of corruption to the letter, but he is a continuator of the violence that Colombia has suffered for decades or rather for centuries: As a result of the liberal-conservative violence, there were tens of thousands of deaths in the 40s and 50s, which was replaced by openly state violence against the Colombian peasantry, which gave rise to the guerrillas, in an environment of social injustice. This violence was followed by guerrilla violence and drug trafficking, then by paramilitarism and now by narco-paramilitarism. Violence in Colombia has not stopped since 1492, when the genocides and land dispossessions began, which, believe it or not, continue today. When we need a peace enabler, to end this perpetual war, what we get as a presidential candidate is an instigator of violence. 1492 is not over.
Rodolfo Hernandez also promotes social injustice and violence. How? As he himself has said it, let’s quote the character again. In an event X the “engineer” brags about mugging his clients with the lot sales he makes. These are his words:
“We, HG, sell lots of 5 meters by 8 meters. 40 meters. And I sell them for 100 million pesos. That is a robbery. Of course it is. Sure. 2,500,000 pesos per square meter”. (https://www.pulzo.com/elecciones-2022/reviven-video-rodolfo-hernandez-diciendo-que-vende-lotes-precios-altos-PP1490326)
More than a resume for a presidential candidate, what this individual has is a criminal record. He has already exhibited a dysfunctional, psychopathic, authoritarian, cheating personality, sadistic traits, such as enjoying the misery of others while they enrich him and also being a confessed admirer of Adolph Hitler, whom he called “German thinker” to later falsely retract saying that he was thinking of Albert Einstein, of whom he knows absolutely nothing.
Rodolfo Hernandez synthesizes 500 years of Colombian evils, the worst of the culture of deceit, the “vivacity”, the lie, the contempt for the people, the authoritarian tendencies to go over the law, besides being a great misogynist who wants women in the house but not in politics. In short, he concentrates the worst of what Colombia has given and that we have already seen in other characters, be they Alvaro Uribe, alias Popeye, Pablo Escobar, all united by a leitmotiv: To put their interests above the law to fulfill their petty goals in life: To get rich and exercise power either in the state or in the mafia.
Hernandez also preferred not to pay ransom for a daughter who was kidnapped and murdered, while he had paid ransom for her father, who had also been kidnapped previously.
In this regard, she commented: “They pay, I have three more children, they take him and then they take the other one and then they take the other one and then all my family, there is no end to it, I had to tie my underpants and face this pain”.
Pay attention to this expression: “I had to tie my underpants and face this pain”, with which she implies that she knew she was sacrificing her daughter by not paying the kidnappers (see: https://www.infobae.com/america/colombia/2022/04/30/rodolfo-hernandez-revela-por-que-no-pago-el-rescate-de-su-hija-asesinada-por-un-grupo-armado/).
These are two life and death decisions. In one he decides to save his father, in the other he decides to sacrifice his daughter so that he will no longer be extorted! Save the man, let them kill the woman. His decision is of a macho and economic nature, because if his daughter is killed, no ransom is payable. In addition it was an adopted daughter, obviously he valued his life less, the adopted daughter was not of his blood and for him it is practically disposable (see: https://www.bluradio.com/nacion/elecciones/rodolfo-hernandez-revela-por-que-no-pago-el-rescate-de-su-hija-a-quien-asesinaron-secuestradores).
Put this violent, vulgar, corrupt, amoral, grotesque, incongruous and despicable character in the presidency and ask yourselves, in cases of life or death, whose side would he be on? On the side of the poor he has exploited all his life and whom he openly mocks or on the side of those who favor his economic interests?
And, something that no journalist has questioned. The man says that he will govern under a decree of internal commotion to pass his laws. He is saying that he is going to lie, that he is going to invent a commotion that does not exist to become dictator! How is it possible that nobody has shouted at these words? The admirer of Adolph Hitler, besides having dreams of dictator, openly says that he is going to invent an internal commotion and there is no critical voice to say: Stop this individual, he does NOT have the capacity to be president, he is proposing to govern something completely illegal! Hernandez believes he will govern the country as he has run his businesses, with fraud, crushing the interests of others and putting his own petty interests above (see: https://elpais.com/america-colombia/2022-05-23/la-conmocion-interior-del-ingeniero.html).
Colombia would be going back to the Middle Ages with a character like this in the presidency, it would be absurd in a corrupt country to elect the corrupt MAJOR as president. A man who is willing to bypass any moral or legal precept to impose by force his vision of the world. And his worldview is to get rich, either by ruining the lives of entire families or by sacrificing his own daughter, because money is everything to him.
Pretend you were putting alias Popeye in the presidency of Colombia, for whom neither morals, law nor religion existed. This individual is not far from being the same. Popeye was a thug outside all legality, this man has all the characteristics of a thug who manipulates the law, to such a degree, that despite his shady record he is one step away from being president of Colombia.
The choice is clear: Either we elect a person who has all the moral and mental characteristics of a lumpen or we elect a person with whom we may not agree on many things, but we will know that he will be respectful of the law and whose resume is light years away from that of the “engineer” he built to enrich himself by defrauding the poor.
Hernandez will go to trial on July 21, for alleged corruption, there is a lot of evidence and witnesses against him (see: https://www.elpais.com.co/politica/vitalogic-el-caso-de-presunta-corrupcion-en-el-que-esta-involucrado-rodolfo-hernandez.html).