Jota Pe Hernández: "It will be very difficult for the left to regain power"

Jonathan Ferney Pulido Hernández electorally surprised the country last year, obtaining the third highest vote in the Senate of the Republic. What is the congressman who was previously an 'influencer' up to now? The director of RCN News, José Manuel Acevedo , spoke exclusively with him, whom he visited at his house and later accompanied him to the Capitol.

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José Manuel Acevedo: Who is Jota Pe Hernández?

Jota Pe Hernández: He is a common citizen who knew poverty very well, who was outraged and decided at some point to use social networks and through them to show that indignation that connected with the Colombian people and led him, exactly in 2022, to occupy a seat in Congress.

JMA: What was your childhood and youth like?

JH: Complicated, because since I was ten years old I worked as a street vendor. I saw how one of my sisters died in an impressive accident and because of that we were completely homeless. I saw how my parents had to work in the streets and sell things. At the age of ten I started selling empanadas in the streets. My parents made them and I sold them.

JMA: Who do you do better working with: with the 'influencers' or with congressmen?

JH: I totally disconnected from the 'influencer' issue. With congressmen, some like me. Some not so much. But we didn't come here to make friends, but to do our job correctly.

JMA: What is the story behind that Police cap?

JH: A colleague gave it to me who knows that I am a public force. I feel that we must defend these heroes who are sadly being killed.

JMA: They support you a lot, but they also criticize you. There are those who say that he criticized Uribe and Duque and ended up thinking like them. What do you think of that?

JH: On the contrary. I have tried to be as consistent as possible. Those who I feel are turning around are those of the Government. For example, at campaign time they said they criticized waste and now we see a wasteful government.

JMA: Is Jota Pe a guy from the right or from the left?

JH: The problems of the Colombian people have no ideology.

JMA: What's up with the salary reduction for congressmen?

JH: When I filed my first project to reduce wages, I told the Colombians that all the projects that were going to collapse, except for Jota Pe, and it was fulfilled. We are in 2023 and the only project that is alive is that of Jota Pe Hernández. In a few weeks we are going to experience the first wage reduction debate in our First Commission project. And we have more than 16 senators, out of 21, who are ready to support it and who have promised me that they will vote positively for it.

JMA: Don't you think it could happen that in the fourth debate "the bread burns"?

JH: My strategy is that through social networks and the media, Colombians can follow up on these senators and representatives on how they are going to vote on that project.

JMA: How did you earn more money?

JH: On some occasions I received a large income as a content creator. Right now there is a fixed salary that, by the way, I share a part, just as I promised.

JMA: Who do you share it with?

JH: With people in need. We receive cases from people in need. We have shared with towns where there is a shortage of food.

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JMA: In your days as an 'influencer', what was your most viewed video?

JH: One in which he spoke of Vargas Lleras and Juan Manuel Santos, when they were running for the Presidency, and told them that they are the same with the same.

JMA: What is the progress of the investigation that you have said you have against Roy Barreras?

JH: That here in Congress billions and billions are moved through contracts. In one of those contracts we found an alleged corruption that splashes the president of the Senate, Roy Barreras.

JMA: How do you splash it?

JH: It relates and it will be the institutions, after we file this complaint, that will be in charge of looking at whether this man was benefited or not. But we do believe that corruption may exist there with hundreds of millions being stolen.

JMA: Has that happened while Roy Barreras has been president of Congress?

JH: Before they have always stolen. But this corruption case occurs after Roy Barreras is president of the Senate.

JMA: If the accusations that are made are not proven, you can get into trouble for false accusations, false testimony, libel...

JH: Senator Barreras already knows. We had a confrontation in the First Commission. I asked him: "Are you very scared by the investigation we are doing?" He already knows we're in the middle of an investigation, and he already threatened me. He already told me about the insult, the slander, that it is compensable, that it is condemnable... but no, José Manuel, I am not going to go out and file a complaint if I do not have proof. It is a plus that Jota Pe Hernández has: when he makes a complaint, it is because he has it supported.

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JMA: How are you viewing the health, pension and labor reform?

JH: Each of these reforms are different and similar. Different in their contexts and similar in the benefit or harm that they can bring to the Colombian people. For example, if we talk about the pension, there is a risk that the pension money will go into the hands of politicians who have not set a good example for decades. Regarding health, I am concerned about handing over the health budget to mayors and governors. That reform is like going back to Social Security, going back a few years.

JMA: But there are people in your party, Alianza Verde, who do like the reform...

JH: It's what I like about my party, that it allows me to have independence. And as far as labor is concerned, I agree that they return rights to employees. But then, what will happen to the business community, which is the axis of the economy? So I feel that the three reforms have to be studied very well and debated so that they are not going to be a detriment to Colombians.

JMA: In this First Commission, the discussion on the use of recreational cannabis is very advanced: how did you vote for it?

JH: I downvoted it. I feel that there are two words on the national shield, freedom and order, that both are important. That freedom does not pass over order.

JMA: Here in the Senate room is where, according to what your colleague Isabel Cristina Zuleta said, you come to sleep...

JH: Two of your advisors were located in the chairs that are in the bars and I receive a call and I crouch down and I make the mistake of answering the call crouching down. When I crouch down, the two advisers of Isabel Cristina Zuleta take the opportunity to take the photo, send it to the wineries, which exist, and that photo went viral and the slander they did was that I fell asleep in plenary, when the cameras showed that I was receiving a call.

JMA: What would you say to her?

JH: What I think is serious. But the most serious thing is that her own comrades in the Historical Pact think badly of her. A woman who in her region got close to 100 votes, then, not even her region believes her.

JMA: Which is the best senator or senator, and which is the weakest?

JH: Unfortunately I have it on the other side. But for me one of the best senators is Iván Name, from the Alianza Verde party. And the weakest is César Pachón, from the Historical Pact.

JMA: Did you think about what you are going to do when your term in the Republic Congress ends?

JH: The only thing I've been thinking about is that in these four years I can fulfill Colombia with different things that I told them. One of them: with clean hands I go in, and with clean hands I will go out. The Colombians will decide which is the next place that Jota Pe Hernández should occupy.

JMA: Gustavo Petro is now in the Casa de Nariño. Time is running out, but who do you see as his successor?

JH: It's quite difficult. I could answer who I don't see. And I feel that it will be very difficult for the left to return to power in three and a half years, with the difficult things that we are experiencing and the mismanagement that we are seeing from the National Government.

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