Leftwing Gustavo Petro Is Elected As The New President Of Colombia

By Satyaki Chakraborty

The people of Colombia belonging to the Latin American region elected the left wing leader Gustavo Petro as the next President of the country in the Presidential polls held on June19,setting the stage for further radicalization of the politics of the continent. This was for the first time in the history of this nation that a president with firm left credentials and a record as a guerrilla fighter was elected in a free election.

Gustavo Petro who leads a leftist coalition including all shades of left including the Colombian Communist Party received more than 50 per cent of the votes defeating his conservative businessman rival Rodolfo Hernandez who got47 percent. Hernandez conceded the defeat and now after all formalities are completed, Petro will takeover officially as the president in August this year.

Just over 58 percent of Colombia’s 39 million voters turned out to cast ballots on Sunday’s final round. Colombia has a population of 50 million and all along, the right wing conservatives with links with oligarchs and big capital ruled the country with little focus on the improvement of the livelihood of the poor people, especially the peasants. Petro who has been a long time senator, has worked relentlessly for popularizing his programme containing a number of measures for improving the lot of the underprivileged.

Mr. Petro’s victory reflects widespread discontent in Colombia, with poverty and inequality on the rise and widespread dissatisfaction with a lack of opportunity, issues that sent hundreds of thousands of people to demonstrate in the streets last year. The call for regime change through elections became rampant as millions of students, youth, women, government servants and peasants apart from the industrial workers took part in the massive demonstrations held in all big cities of the country. Petro achieved success finally in Sunday’s elections by efficiently mobilizing the anger of the disgruntled electorate to the ballot boxes. His personality and stature also played a part in swinging the voters to the Left in the final round.

The win is all the more significant because of the country’s history. 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. But the FARC signed a peace deal with the government in 2016, laying down their arms and opening space for a broader political discourse. Mr. Petro had been part of a different rebel group, called the M-19, which demobilized in 1990, and became a political party that helped rewrite the country’s constitution.

Both Mr. Petro and Mr. Hernández beat Federico Gutiérrez, a former big city mayor backed by the conservative elite, in a first round of voting on May 29, sending them to a runoff. Both men had billed themselves as anti-establishment candidates, saying they were running against a political class that had controlled the country for generations. Among the factors that most distinguished them was how they viewed the root of the country’s problems.

Mr. Petro believes the economic system is broken, overly reliant on oil export and a flourishing and illegal cocaine business that he said has made the rich richer and poor poorer. 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.

After taking over as president, the major task of Petro will be to forge a new relationship with the US administration based on the sovereignty of the nation.. For decades, Colombia has been Washington’s strongest ally in Latin America, forming the cornerstone of its security policy in the region. During his campaign, Mr. Petro promised to reassess that relationship, including crucial collaborations on drugs, Venezuela and trade.

In a recent interview, Mr. Petro said his relationship with the United States would focus on working together to tackle climate change. Petro, a former mayor of Bogota, has consistently led opinion polls on promises to redistribute pensions, offer free public university and begin to change what he says are centuries of profound inequality. “What’s not in doubt today is change,” Petro told cheering supporters in central Bogota. “Now it’s about seeing what we will do with Colombia, what Colombian society wants for it’s own country’

Petro’s victory has aroused high expectations among the people of Colombia. This country is known for drug trade, mafia rule and political murders. A good part of the economy is linked to drug trade. Petro has to deal with the entrenched drug mafia which is not a small task. The left coalition leader has to take along all the partners with his programme. Much depends on his capacity to lead the team unitedly. After Colombia, Brazil is going for presidential elections on October 2 this year. The Colombian victory of the left must have enthused the Brazilian left coalition in the current campaign. Latin America is looking for the victory of Lula in October elections as he is already leading in opinion polls as against his right wing rival. (IPA Service)