Colombians are heading to the polls today in a presidential election that could give the conservative South American country its first left-wing leader and first black vice president.
The favorite Gustavo Petro, a former guerrilla and M-19 senator, faces several rivals, but his main rival is Federico Gutiérrez, the former mayor of Medellin, Colombia’s second city, who leads a right-wing coalition. with close ties to the current government of the president. Ivan Duke.
Rodolfo Hernandez, a business tycoon and social media mogul, has also seen a late rise in polls. If no candidate gets more than 50% of the vote, a second round will be held in June.
Petro’s campaign has been boosted by the support of a generation of young politicized voters during an unprecedented wave of protests last year.
“In Colombia we are tired of the same thing,” said Rosa Botero, a student, at Petro’s last campaign rally in the city’s historic Plaza Bolivar last week. “Petro could change Colombia.”
Petro’s opponents, meanwhile, say his victory could herald a national collapse like the one caused by the late Hugo Chávez, which brought neighboring Venezuela to economic and social ruin.
Whoever wins the presidency will face great challenges. The country was paralyzed by last year’s protests against inequality, while the violence of dissident rebels and drug militias continues to affect cities and the countryside. Inflation is rising and the country is struggling to cope with nearly 2 million migrants from neighboring Venezuela.
The historic peace pact signed with the left-wing Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in 2016 is also at the polls. That deal formally ended half a century of civil war that killed 260,000 people and displaced 7 million, but the government has been accused of slowing down its implementation.
Petro is a staunch supporter of the deal, while Gutierrez is seen as a skeptic.
“This is a historic election because it is the first time the left has a real chance of coming to power, and that is the result of the peace process,” said Laura Gil, a political scientist and columnist. “It is a proposal that brings together social movements that could not be expressed electorally by the sword of Damocles that hung them during the armed conflict.”
The campaign has been marked by threats of violence against Petro and his formula partner, Francia Márquez, who, if elected, would be one of the two black vice presidents in Latin America, along with Costa Rica’s Epsy Campbell Barr. Both Petro and Márquez have spoken at rallies from behind bulletproof vests.
The National Liberation Army (ELN), another left-wing rebel group, announced a ceasefire ahead of Sunday’s vote, but other factions and criminal groups have routinely targeted political candidates and schools. in recent years.
Polls will close at 4pm local time, with expected results a few hours later, although Petro and some of his allies have warned that the election could be fraught with fraud, worrying observers in a country that is proud of the its relative political stability.