Jorge Enrique Robledo Castillo (born 11 February 1950) is a Colombian politician, architect, professor, and author. He served as a member of the

Senate of Colombia The Senate of the Republic of Colombia () is the upper house of the Congress of Colombia, with the lower house being the Chamber of Representatives. The Senate has 108 members elected for concurrent (non- rotating) four-year terms. Electoral ...

from 2002 until 2022, when he decided to leave his position in congress to pursue the office of

president of Colombia The president of Colombia (President of the Republic) is the head of state and head of government of Colombia. The president heads the executive branch of the Government of Colombia, national government and is the commander-in-chief of the Mil ...

, ultimately losing to

Gustavo Petro Gustavo Francisco Petro Urrego (; born 19 April 1960) is a Colombian politician who is the 34th and current president of Colombia since 2022. Upon inauguration, he became the Pink tide, first left-wing president in the History of Colombia, recen ...

. On 21 June 2023, Robledo announced that he was running for mayor of

Bogotá Bogotá (, also , , ), officially Bogotá, Distrito Capital, abbreviated Bogotá, D.C., and formerly known as Santa Fe de Bogotá (; ) during the Spanish Imperial period and between 1991 and 2000, is the capital city, capital and largest city ...

in the October 2023 elections.

Early life and education

Robledo was born 11 February 1950 in

Ibagué Ibagué () (referred to as San Bonifacio de Ibagué del Valle de las Lanzas during the New Kingdom of Granada, Spanish period) is the capital of Tolima Department, Tolima, one of the 32 departments that make up the Republic of Colombia. The city ...

, Tolima, Colombia. His family later moved to

Manizales Manizales () is a city in central Colombia. It is the capital of the Caldas Department, Department of Caldas, and lies near the Nevado del Ruiz volcano. Currently, the city is the main center for the production of Colombian coffee and an importa ...

, Colombia where Robledo spent the rest of his childhood and later attended the Universidad de Los Andes to study architecture.

Political career

Robledo is a member of the political party. He was formerly a member of the

Alternative Democratic Pole The Alternative Democratic Pole ( Spanish: ''Polo Democrático Alternativo'' or PDA) is a left-wing, democratic socialist and camilist political party in Colombia, active from 2005 to the present. In 2022 it was successful at the polls and fo ...

and was the Senate Leader for the party in congress. In his 4th term in office, Robledo received the highest vote of all Senators in the 2014 parliamentary elections (191,910 votes). In October 2016, Robledo announced that he would run for president in 2018. He will be a candidate in the 2022 Presidential primary elections held by the Center Hope Coalition, vying to represent the Coalition in the first round of the Colombian Presidential general election.

Policies

Senator Robledo is known for his

economic nationalist Economic nationalism or nationalist economics is an ideology that prioritizes state intervention in the economy, including policies like domestic control and the use of tariffs and restrictions on labor, goods, and capital movement. The core bel ...

policies and his persistent criticism of

neoliberalism Neoliberalism is a political and economic ideology that advocates for free-market capitalism, which became dominant in policy-making from the late 20th century onward. The term has multiple, competing definitions, and is most often used pe ...

and the dependency on foreign investment as the main economic driver of economic growth. He has also focused heavily on

national sovereignty A nation state, or nation-state, is a political entity in which the state (a centralized political organization ruling over a population within a territory) and the nation (a community based on a common identity) are (broadly or ideally) co ...

industrialization Industrialisation (British English, UK) American and British English spelling differences, or industrialization (American English, US) is the period of social and economic change that transforms a human group from an agrarian society into an i ...

workers' rights Labor rights or workers' rights are both legal rights and human rights relating to labor relations between workers and employers. These rights are codified in national and international labor and employment law. In general, ...

, and the improvement of

healthcare Health care, or healthcare, is the improvement or maintenance of health via the preventive healthcare, prevention, diagnosis, therapy, treatment, wikt:amelioration, amelioration or cure of disease, illness, injury, and other disability, physic ...

. Robledo maintains strong relations with Colombia's agricultural interest groups. He is a critic of Colombia's free trade deals with respect to

food security Food security is the state of having reliable access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, healthy Human food, food. The availability of food for people of any class, gender, ethnicity, or religion is another element of food protection. Simila ...

and

agricultural production Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Robledo, Jorge Enrique 1950 births Living people Colombian politicians People from Ibagué University of Los Andes (Colombia) alumni Economic nationalism National liberalism Left-wing nationalism