In an interview with Colombia’s 105.1 FM, Centro Democrático presidential candidate Rafael Nieto Loaiza accused Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos of wasting an unprecedented boom in oil production and prices.
“This government had the biggest boom in petroleum in the history of the republic, and they wasted it all”, the candidate said. An excerpt of the interview was posted to Nieto’s twitter account, and retweeted by ex-president Álvaro Uribe.
Este Gobierno tuvo la mayor bonanza petrolera en la historia de Colombia y la botó toda por el caño de la basura! pic.twitter.com/tZ06fCwflS
— Rafael Nieto Loaiza (@RafaNietoLoaiza) August 6, 2017
Nieto also criticized Santos in the interview for leaving the country with a massive debt.
Colombia’s economy has suffered from both significantly lower oil prices and falling production. Many economics agree that the country wasted an opportunity to reshape the economy while prices were high. Instead, under current president Juan Manuel Santos, the country’s external debt rose to 40% of GDP, reaching $116 billion in October 2016, more than double from 2010 when Santos took office.
