Colombian presidential candidate Rodolfo Hernandez at a polling station in Bucaramanga, Colombia, on Sunday. Credit … Nathalia Angarita for The New York Times
Rodolfo Hernandez, a social media mogul who has run as a surprise candidate in Colombia’s presidential election, has been largely absent from public life in recent weeks.
He has refused to attend the debates and has not held rallies, favoring live broadcasts mounted by his social media team.
But on Sunday, when the polls opened, Mr. Hernandez got out of a white car in Bucaramanga, his hometown, surrounded by bodyguards, and in a crowd of voters.
“Long live Rodolfo!” shouted the supporters, many struggling to see the candidate as he entered his polling station.
Mr. Hernandez pushed the package with a wide smile. His opponent, Gustavo Petro, a former senator and former rebel trying to become the country’s first left-wing president, cast his vote more than 250 miles south in the capital, Bogota.
In Bucaramanga, the middle city where Mr. Hernandez built his fortune and once he served as mayor, his candidacy has created political fervor and deep regional pride among voters who say they believe he represents them.
Carlos Gamboa, 42, a businessman, was among the pack of voters waiting in line when Mr. Hernandez came to vote.
“Most of us are with Rodolfo,” he said, adding that he did not trust Mr. Petro, in part because of the candidate’s time as a member of the M-19 insurgent group.
Mr. Hernandez has appeared on an anti-corruption platform, despite being charged with corruption, accused of pushing subordinates to award a city contract to a particular company, a deal that could have benefited his son.
He has said he is innocent.
At the Bucaramanga polls, many voters did not seem concerned about the accusation.
“No one who comes to power here is clean,” said 58-year-old Gilma Beserra, “but Rodolfo is the least corrupt.”
On Sunday morning in Bogotá, Adriana Martínez, 24, was already lined up in front of an institute in the Sosiego working-class neighborhood.
He had just finished his night shift as a health care assistant and had gone straight to the bus polling station.
Mrs. Martinez said he supported Mr. Petro and that decision was especially influenced by his election of Francia Márquez as vice president, who could become the first black woman vice president in the country.
Mrs. Márquez is an environmental activist who has emerged from poverty to become a national phenomenon, speaking during the campaign about race, class and gender in a direct way little heard in the highest levels of Colombian politics.
“He is a person who comes from where we come from,” said Ms. Martinez, “has had to fight to get where he is.”
Mrs. Martinez said he gave little weight to the argument that Mr. Martinez’s policies. Petro would lead to the same kind of economic, humanitarian and democratic crisis that has occurred in Venezuela.
In Colombia, “you don’t have enough money to buy a potato. In this sense, we are already in extreme poverty, “he said.
At the same polling station, Ingrid Forrero, 31, said she saw a generational gap in her community, with young people supporting Mr. Petro and the older generations in favor of Mr. Hernandez.
Her own family calls her “the little rebel” for her support of Mr. Petro, whom he said favors his education and income inequality policies.
“Youth are more inclined to revolution,” he said, “to the left, to change.”
– Megan Janetsky and Genevieve Glatsky