He is known as ‘teacher’ for being a promoter of education in the country. At 65 years old, Sergio Fajardo complete three opportunities in the electoral contest for the presidency.
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He is from Medellin, mathematician from the Universidad de los Andes with an M.A. and Ph.D. in Mathematics from the University of Wisconsin. He also has a master’s degree from the Universidad de los Andes and an honorary doctorate from the Universidad Internacional Menéndez Pelayo, Spain (2009), and the Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Argentina (2015).
In 1985 it became Professor of the Universidad de los Andes and, at the same time, wrote opinion columns in the The world, of Medellín, on politics and education. Since then, education has been the backbone of his political proposal.
Later, he was deputy editor of the newspaper The Colombian and columnist in other media such as the magazine Money and the newspaper The viewer.
In 1999, he ventured into political movements. She, together with 49 leaders, formed Citizen Commitmentwhose main objective was to reject polarization in the country.
In 2003, he was elected independent mayor of Medellin and, 4 years later, in 2007, he received the award for best mayor in the country for the public-private initiative Colombia Leader.
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In 2010, he made his first attempt at the presidency. At that time, he launched himself with the Compromiso Ciudadano movement, but later allied himself with Antanas Mockus and it was his vice-presidential ticket.
For 2012 and until 2015, he was chosen as Governor of Antioch. Later, in 2017 he began collecting signatures to register as a presidential candidate with the movement he created. He later led the formation of the Colombia Coalition, together with the Alianza Verde party and the Polo Democrático.
In 2018, his candidacy for the Presidency was official, with Claudia López being his vice-presidential formula. This 2022 is the third time that the politician seeks to reach the Casa de Nariño.
On this occasion, he launched himself as a candidate for the Hope Center Coalition along with Juan Manuel Galán, Alejandro Gaviria, Jorge Enrique Robledo and Carlos Amaya, whom he defeated.
SERGIO FAJARDO’S ECONOMIC PROPOSALS
The candidate made it clear in various speeches that he is willing to make a tax reform and this would be for ‘those who have more to pay more’. That is to say, it would apply taxes to equity, to dividends and that exceptions be eliminated.
On the other hand, education will become a factory for creating opportunities, closing the inequality gaps by guaranteeing full coverage for early childhood. Grosso modo, its great commitment is for an educational system adaptable to the characteristics and specificities of rurality.
He also stated that if elected, his purpose is to generate 1.5 million new formal jobs, increase wages and thus reduce poverty and inequalities.
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To do this, it will promote agricultural, industrial and service sectors able to incorporate new technology and be more productive. Along with this, it seeks to leave behind the dependence on oil and coal and have a more diversified and internationally competitive export structure.
“In the next 4 years, we will triple spending on research and development, which today is barely 0.3% of GDP, to leave it at 1% of GDP. We will do it with a public-private fund for science, technology, innovation and entrepreneurship“, he assures.
BRIEFCASE
