Colombia has elected a former guerrilla Gustavo Petro as its president, making him the first left-wing head of state in the South American country.
Petro defeated Rodolfo Hernández, a former Bucaramanga mayor and business tycoon, with 50.47% of the vote in a second round of elections and will take office in July amid a series of challenges, including which highlights the deepening of discontent. inequality and rising cost of living. Hernandez had 47.27%, with almost all the ballots scrutinized, according to the results published by the electoral authorities.
Petro’s election marks a change of tide for Colombia, a country that has never had a left-wing president before, and after similar victories by the left in Peru, Chile and Honduras.
“Today is a village party,” tweeted the victorious candidate on Sunday night after the results arrived. “May so much suffering be dampened in the joy that floods the heart of the homeland today.”
Petro’s journey from M-19 guerrilla fighter in the 1980s to president also saw him become a senator and mayor of the capital, Bogota. He has a reputation for serpentine and alert speeches.
Petro’s vice president will be Francia Márquez, an award-winning human rights and environmental advocate, who will be the first time a black woman has taken office.
Gustavo Petro’s supporters celebrate his election as Colombia’s first left-wing president. Photography: Carlos Ortega / EPA
“All women win today,” Márquez tweeted as the polls closed on Sunday afternoon. “We are facing the greatest possibility of change in recent times.”
“History has been broken because nothing like this had happened since we became a republic and achieved independence 200 years ago,” said Andrés Felipe Barrero, a supporter of Petro.
“I am just happy with the election of the new president. It completely marks the change we are waiting for, although it is a bit partial, it is the change we were waiting for “, said Diego León, who also voted for Petro.
“It’s really a new moment for Colombia,” said Luis Eduardo Celis, who works for the Peace and Reconciliation Foundation, a Colombian think tank. “A Colombia that has many outstanding issues to move forward: agrarian reform, an economy at the service of the people, more equitable taxation, to get out of hunger, out of poverty, to end all this violence.”
A Gustavo Petro supporter waves the national flag from his car. Photography: Raúl Arboleda / AFP / Getty Images
Hernandez seemed to be a contender, though he could not escape an almost constant stream of scandal. He referred to Hitler as a “great German thinker” and has been filmed with models on a yacht in Miami. His posts on TikTok, where he spent much of his campaign, were full of blasphemy and he refused to attend any debates before Sunday’s vote.
The new leader’s agenda will include the country’s faltering peace process with the left-wing rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), which was signed in 2016 and formally ended five decades. civil war that killed more than 260,000 people and displaced. more than 7 million. The outgoing government of Ivan Duque has been accused of slowing down the implementation of the agreement to undermine it.
Another headache for Petro will be neighboring Venezuela, which has been living in a social, political and economic crisis for years. Petro has called for the reopening of ties with Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro, opposing the Duke government’s policy of isolation.
Petro has also pledged to relieve the country of its dependence on fossil fuels, worrying investors.
The election was hotly contested, with many observers classifying the race between two relative strangers as a broader rebuke against the political class. A number of traditional politicians were sacked in the first round.