Colombia election's

2022 - 6 - 20

Post cover — Image courtesy of "The Guardian"

Former guerrilla Gustavo Petro wins Colombian election to become ... (The Guardian)

Former fighter in the M-19 militia beat populist business tycoon and fellow political outsider Rodolfo Hernández in runoff on Sunday.

A host of traditional politicians were ousted in the first round. “It really is a new moment for Colombia,” said Luis Eduardo Celis, who works at the Peace and Reconciliation Foundation, a Colombian thinktank. Duque has been accused of slow-walking the accord’s implementation in order to undermine it. “I’m very happy with the election of the new president. “Today is a party for the people,” tweeted the victorious candidate on Sunday night after results came in. “I sincerely hope that this decision is beneficial for everyone.”

Gustavo Petro, former guerrilla, will be Colombia's first leftist president (The Washington Post)

The leftist's win was a resounding rejection of the political establishment that has ruled the South American nation for two centuries.

Petro denies he was involved in the siege; he was imprisoned at the time. For generations, many Colombians have associated the left with the armed insurgencies in its long history of conflict. “Latin America is going its way and the United States is going its way,” he said. President Biden has described the country as the “keystone” of democracy in the hemisphere. In Chile, the free-market model of the region, voters this year chose as president 36-year-old former student activist Gabriel Boric. And in Brazil, the largest country in Latin America, leftist former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva leads polls to unseat President Jair Bolsonaro in October. We look forward to working with President-Elect Petro to further strengthen the U.S.-Colombia relationship and move our nations toward a better future.” He also said he would normalize relations with neighboring Venezuela, a significant shift from Duque, one of the region’s staunchest opponents of socialist president Nicolás Maduro. And his victory is a loud rebuke of the deeply unpopular administration of incumbent Iván Duque, who many felt did little to improve the economic situation in one of the region’s most unequal countries. Petro called for a “great national dialogue” to unify the country and build peace. “I hope that this decision that has been made is beneficial for everyone,” he said in a video address on social media. His presidency could have profound implications for Colombia’s economic model, role of government, and its relationship with other countries in the hemisphere — including the United States, its most important ally. Petro’s triumph, in one of the most historically conservative countries on the continent, is a stunning example of how widespread discontent has shaken the status quo.

Colombia Election: Gustavo Petro Makes History in Presidential ... (The New York Times)

A former rebel and longtime legislator won Colombia's presidential election on Sunday, galvanizing voters frustrated by decades of poverty and inequality ...

“Why? Because the person grew up in the context of love and support.” “What’s key is that he wasn’t part of the main circle who made the decisions in M-19. He was very young at that moment,” she said. To a segment of Colombians who are clamoring for change and for more diverse representation, Ms. Márquez is their champion. She grew up sleeping on a dirt floor in a region battered by violence related to the country’s long internal conflict. It turned into a political party that helped rewrite the country’s constitution to focus more on equality and human rights. The M-19 was born in 1970 as a response to alleged fraud in that year’s presidential elections. Mr. Hernández and Dr. Castillo said that, if elected, she would have also become the minister of education. There are now nearly nine million Colombian voters 28 or younger, the most in history, and a quarter of the electorate. “Because of the family togetherness.” He is calling for a halt to all new oil exploration, a shift to developing other industries, and an expansion of social programs, while imposing higher taxes on the rich. “Colombians, today the majority of citizens have chosen the other candidate,” he said. For decades, the government fought a brutal leftist insurgency known as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, with the stigma from the conflict making it difficult for a legitimate left to flourish.

Former rebel Gustavo Petro wins Colombia's presidential election (NPR)

BOGOTA, Colombia — Former rebel Gustavo Petro narrowly won a runoff election over a political outsider millionaire Sunday, ushering in a new era of politics ...

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Colombia election: Latin America leftist leaders praise Petro win (Aljazeera.com)

Former rebel Petro's victory marks the first time in history Colombia has elected a left-wing candidate as president.

In that vein, he has said he wants to shift Colombia’s relationship with the United States away from anti-narcotics policies and towards the fight against climate change. The 62-year-old Petro had been a non-combatant member of the M-19 rebel group, for which he was briefly jailed and allegedly tortured. For his part, Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said Petro’s success could herald a healing period in the country. Argentina, Peru, Chile, Mexico, Bolivia and Honduras have all moved to the left in their last elections, although some observers have argued the shift is rooted more in populism than ideology. Among his campaign promises, Petro pledged to address profound social and economic inequality in traditionally conservative Colombia, where successive governments have focused primarily on addressing insecurity and violence linked to the country’s nearly six-decade-long armed conflict. “We will work together for the unity of our continent in the challenges of a world changing rapidly,” he tweeted.

Colombia picks first leftist president in tight runoff contest (USA TODAY)

Along with the first left-wing president, voters elected the first Black woman vice president.

The rejection of politics as usual "is a reflection of the fact that the people are fed up with the same people as always," said Nataly Amezquita, a 26-year-old civil engineer waiting to vote. ... Neither of them seems like a good person to me." "I accept the result, as it should be, if we want our institutions to be firm," he said in a video on social media. "We have to create greater social change. The vote is also resulting in Colombia having a Black woman as vice president for the first time. Petro is willing to resume diplomatic relations with Venezuela, which were halted in 2019. Petro's win in Latin America's third most populous nation was more than a defeat of Hernández. It puts an end to Colombia's long stigmatization of the left for its perceived association with the country's half-century of armed conflict. Official figures show that 39% of Colombia's lived on less than $89 a month last year. Neither got enough votes to win outright and headed into the runoff. Petro's showing was the latest leftist political victory in Latin America fueled by voters' desire for change. Petro has proposed ambitious pension, tax, health and agricultural reforms and changes to how Colombia fights drug cartels and other armed groups. The pandemic set back the country's anti-poverty efforts by at least a decade.