Colombia’s business elite must do more to help close the country’s yawning inequality gap or risk further street protests, says Federico Gutiérrez, the main centre-right contender in this month’s presidential election.
Although eight candidates are standing, polls show that the contest has become a fight between Gutiérrez, a former mayor of Colombia’s second city Medellín, and Gustavo Petro, a senator and radical former leftist guerrilla.
In a country hungry for change after four years of drift under the unpopular centre-right incumbent Iván Duque, Gutiérrez is hoping his down-to-earth style can convince voters he is the right choice to tackle Colombia’s stubbornly high levels of poverty, unemployment and inequality.