Duque, the center-right President whose term ends in early August following the election of leftist politician Gustavo Petro last month, said that populism, coupled with political polarization and the shared notion of truth, could “doom” the prospect of progress in any region in the world.

“If you have those three pieces combined, you’re basically doomed. They [populist politicians] will destroy everything that you have before you. I think the biggest dilemma in Latin America is more demagogues versus pedagogues and autocrats versus democrats,” Duque told The Jakarta Post during an interview on Monday night.

The 45-year-old conservative politician also warned that a combination of illicit funding, social media pressure and the use of violence could be the vehicle for what he called “political opportunists” to destroy democracy.

“It’s an experiment that is happening in Indonesia, Canada, Iran, Taiwan, Korea [...] and the United States. Just to derail the trust people have in institution,” he said.

Duque was responding to a question on whether the series of wins from leftist candidates in Latin and South American countries could pose a problem to development in the region.

He was quick to respond that the ideological battle between the left and right was no longer relevant, and that political leaders had adopted policy positions taken by their rivals from across the aisle.

Popular

PDI-P will likely be part of opposition: Ganjar

Indonesia one step from Olympics after beating South Korea

Bahlil leads task force to boost sugar, bioethanol production in Papua