Colombia's challenges for 2022
Colombia experienced an unprecedented social outburst in 2021, triggered by the problems brought about by the covid-19 pandemic, such as the six-point increase in monetary poverty, which stood at 42.5%, compared to 2019, meaning that the number of poor people rose from 17.4 to 21 million.
The end of the demonstrations did not solve these problems, so one of the country's challenges in 2022 will be to reduce inequality and poverty in order to address popular demands and avoid new protests.
On 29 May 2022, Colombia will vote in a first round to elect President Iván Duque's successor, with polls showing leftist Gustavo Petro as the favourite.
The elections will be key in determining the direction the country will take on issues such as violence reduction, unemployment, the implementation of the FARC peace agreement and relations with Venezuela.
Although inflation remains high and the country has not fully recovered from the impact of covid-19, the government's expected economic growth for this year is 9.7 %, which Duque says would be the best performance in 100 years.
The government's goal is to continue growing at a good pace in 2022, the year for which the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) forecasts a 5.5 % expansion of the Colombian economy, which is the best result predicted by the organisation for next year.
According to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, at least 73 human rights defenders and social leaders were assassinated between January and November, and 35 more cases are in the process of being verified.
Since the signing of the peace agreement between the government and the FARC guerrillas, violence against human rights defenders has not ceased and the authorities face the challenge of halting this bloodshed, especially during election season when violence tends to increase, as well as reducing public insecurity, which has increased due to the pandemic.
Inflation in Colombia over the last twelve months was 5.26 %, well above the 3 % target, and the dollar has risen above 4,000 pesos, which has pushed up the price of basic goods.
Colombia will therefore have to control inflation in 2022, for which the Bank of the Republic (issuer) increased interest rates by half a percentage point to 3 %.
According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), coca cultivation in Colombia was reduced in 2020 to 143,000 hectares, 7 % less than the area planted in 2019.
However, potential cocaine production increased by 8 % to 1,536 tonnes of cocaine base, equivalent to 1,228 tonnes of cocaine hydrochloride, a problem that the government must return to in 2022.
The main goal of the Colombian national football team is to seal their qualification to the World Cup in Qatar, as after 14 games they are in fourth place with 17 points, despite the fact that they have five games without a win.
The team coached by Reinaldo Rueda will have to improve their performance if they want to qualify, as in the remaining four games they will have to face Peru and Bolivia in Barranquilla and visit Argentina and Venezuela.
After losing out on hosting the men's Copa America in 2021, which was finally played in Brazil, the South American Football Confederation (Conmebol) granted Colombia the possibility of hosting the Copa America Women's Cup in 2022, which it will host for the first time.
With the cities of Bucaramanga, Armenia and Cali as the only confirmed venues for the moment, Colombia will try to organise a good tournament to continue to be taken into account by Conmebol for regional tournaments.
Egan Bernal's triumph in the 2021 Giro d'Italia revived the illusion of Colombian cycling that, after a pale 2020 and with some of its figures in decline, dreams of returning to win one of the three big races in 2022.
The main cards to achieve this are Bernal himself, from the Ineos team; Miguel Ángel López, who returned to Astana after a controversial spell with Movistar; Rigoberto Urán, who despite his seniority is still going strong with EF Education-Nippo, and Nairo Quintana, who with Arkea dreams of returning to his best level.
The last time a Colombian team won a continental tournament was in 2016, with Atlético Nacional beating Independiente del Valle in the final of the Copa Libertadores, and since then the performance of Colombian clubs has been weak, with the exception of Junior, who were runners-up in the 2018 Copa Sudamericana.
In 2021 the result was disastrous for the Colombians, who failed to advance beyond the group stage in the Libertadores, and that is why in 2022 Deportes Tolima, Deportivo Cali, Atlético Nacional, Millonarios, Junior, América de Cali, La Equidad and Independiente Santa Fe will be looking to make up for the disappointment.