Voters are heading to the polls in Colombia on Sunday for a historic presidential election that could see the left win for the first time in the conservative South American country.
Gustavo Petro, a former guerrilla and mayor of Bogotá, will face Rodolfo Hernández, a populist business tycoon and former mayor of the city of Bucaramanga, in a contest in which both candidates have presented themselves as political outsiders.
Both men are divisive, prone to blunders and lofty, and the pre-election campaign was bitter, with each candidate accusing the other of corruption. Hernandez, who is under investigation for grafting, refused to discuss Petro and moved briefly to Miami after claiming his life was in danger.
Hernandez surprised Colombia when he reached the second round on Sunday after eliminating several career politicians from the race in the first round of voting on May 29.
Petro got the majority of votes then, about 8.5 million, but could not gather enough to exceed the 50% threshold needed to win definitively. Sunday would be the first time Colombia is led by a leftist.
Gustavo Petro and Rodolfo Hernández face each other at the polls on Sunday. Photography: Martín Mejia, Fernando Vergara / AP
“It simply came to our notice then. There are no doubts, only certainties. Let’s make history “, said Petro in a video shared on social networks on Wednesday.
“You decide: vote for those who have been in power for more than 30 years or for someone who has worked for their family,” tweeted Hernandez, who avoided traditional rallies and relied on social media, especially TikTok. to reach the voters.
Whoever wins on Sunday will have a job. The country is still recovering from the protests against inequality that shook the country last year, and the 2016 peace agreement with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) of the left hangs in the balance. This agreement formally ended decades of civil war that killed 260,000 people and displaced 7 million, although it has only been delicately implemented.
But no matter who the successful candidate, it will make history, as both men share their ticket with Afro-Colombian women, which means that the next vice president of Colombia will be a black woman. Petro’s formula partner, Francia Márquez, is a rural activist who won the prestigious Goldman Environmental Award; Hernández’s partner in the ticket is Marelen Castillo, a little-known university director and conservative Catholic.
“One of the things that makes this election stand out is that it separates the traditional political forces that have been exercising power in the country for two decades,” said Sergio Guzmán, an analyst who runs the consulting firm Colombia Risk Analysis. “It’s a brutal exit from where the country has been and leads to an unknown path.”