Real estate magnate who came close to winning Colombia’s presidential election dies from cancer

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Rodolfo Hernández, a controversial real estate magnate and anti-corruption crusader, who came close to winning Colombia’s presidential election two years ago, has died from colon cancer. His doctors confirmed Monday he died at a hospital near the city of Bucaramanga. Hernández was a civil engineer, and former mayor of Bucaramanga, who surprised Colombians two years ago, when he made it to the second round of the nation’s presidential election with a low-cost, self-funded campaign that eschewed the clientelist networks that political parties in Colombia usually rely on. Instead, Hernández relied on confrontational messages on X, and snazzy social media videos to get his message out.