Uruguay’s “new politics” bears the face of Andrés Ojeda, the candidate who wants to make people fall in love

“I want to be the candidate that excites and makes people fall in love,” he said at his campaign close on Thursday.

Andrés Ojeda may be the least conventional presidential candidate of the Colorado Party, but he is certainly the most viral. Under the premise of being the face of Uruguay’s “new politics,” the lawyer has flooded social networks with videos in which he explains his government proposals while lifting weights and exercising in the gym.

He presents himself with a more relaxed style to win over the electorate and thus become the next president of the South American country, despite the fact that opinion polls place him in third place and with uncertain possibilities of going to the second round.

His last rally was on a virtual platform, where in recent years he has forged his image first as a lawyer, then as a public personality and, finally, as a politician.

At 40 years old, Ojeda rejects labels and defines himself as a “pragmatic” candidate, who aims to be the lever to promote “the new” over “the old.” He clings to his absence of “backpacks” and feels pride in “not having bills from the past to pass on.”

“It’s been a long time since we pitted the left against the right, but rather pitted the new against the old and the future against the past,” he told The Associated Press. “And I prefer to surf the wave all my life than to try to stop the wave,” he added while pouring another mate.

“The new president” is the slogan of this criminal lawyer whose image in Uruguay is not unknown, although he was rarely associated with politics.

After assuming the defense of former guerrilla Héctor Amodio Pérez in 2015, one of the most high-profile cases in the country’s recent history, Ojeda became a regular figure on local news programs. Over time, he joined various television segments on various channels as a columnist.

As of 2021, his name began to gain strength as the representative of the “generational change” in the Colorado Party, one of the three historical and traditional forces of Uruguay, alongside the Broad Front and the National Party, supported by its overwhelming forms. and without filters.

Born in Montevideo in 1984, it was through the networks where he announced his candidacy last year. And it was also in the digital sphere where he built his electoral campaign, after a surprising victory in the Colorado Party primaries, in which he beat other important candidates despite never having held public office.

The videos of Ojeda lifting weights, showing off his muscles or boxing, while presenting his government proposals, have made the rounds in Latin America and have broken with the traditional moderation that has governed Uruguayan politics in the last three decades. He received criticism, yes, but more than anything people spoke—like never before—about the “disruptive candidate” of Uruguay.

Between zodiac signs and favorite movies, he also discusses mental health, animal welfare, education and child poverty.

“They accused me of being frivolous and all this,” he questioned. “Because there is an understanding that to be serious, you have to be boring,” he said.

After a timid debut in the political arena at the beginning of the campaign, Ojeda took advantage of his viralization to establish himself as the innovative facet of a political campaign that has not aroused passions. He went from having minimal support, of only 3% of the electorate, to imagining himself reaching an eventual second round of elections.

Above all, he is betting on the support of the youngest to lead the generational break, stimulated by the example of other “leaders of the new politics” in the region, he stated, naming Javier Milei in Argentina, Santiago Peña in Paraguay, Nayib Bukele in El Salvador and Gabriel Boric (Chile).

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