BOGOTA —
Gustavo Petro was elected the first
ever left-wing president of Colombia on Sunday, after beating millionaire
businessman Rodolfo Hernandez in a tense and unpredictable runoff election.
اضافة اعلان
With all votes counted, Petro — the 62-year-old
former mayor of Bogota — won with 50.4 percent to Hernandez’s 47.3 percent.
“As of today,
Colombia is changing, a real change
that guides us to one of our aims: the politics of love, ... of understanding,
and dialogue,” said Petro.
Hernandez, 77, accepted the result, in which he came
up short by 700,000 votes, in a Facebook live broadcast.
“I hope that Mr Gustavo Petro knows how to run the
country and is faithful to his discourse against corruption,” said the
construction magnate, who had made fighting graft his main campaign pledge.
Petro will succeed the deeply unpopular conservative
Ivan Duque, who was barred by Colombia’s constitution from standing for
reelection, in a country saddled with widespread poverty, a surge in violence
and other woes.
Speaking to supporters at his party headquarters in
Bogota, Petro held out an olive branch to his opponents.
“This is not a change to deepen sectarianism in
Colombia. The change consists precisely of leaving hatred behind, leaving
sectarianism behind.”
He added: “We want a Colombia that through its
diversity is one Colombia.”
In another historic achievement for a country where
10 percent of the population identify as Afro-descendants, environmental
activist and feminist Francia Marquez will become Colombia’s first black woman
vice president.
“The great challenge that all of us Colombians have
is reconciliation,” said the 40-year-old, who was the target of threats during
a fractious campaign.
“The time has come to build peace, a peace that
implies social justice.”
In central Bogota, thousands of Petro supporters —
mostly young people — rejoiced.
‘Joy for Latin America’
Leftist leaders in the Latin
America region were quick to congratulate Petro.
“Gustavo Petro’s victory is historic. Colombia’s
conservatives have always been tenacious and tough,”
Mexico President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador wrote on Twitter.
“Joy for Latin America! We will work together for
the unity of our continent in the challenges of a world changing rapidly,”
tweeted Chile President Gabriel Boric.
“The will of the Colombian people has been heard, it
went out to defend the path to democracy and peace,” said Venezuela’s
authoritarian President Nicolas Maduro, who has been branded a dictator by the
opposition in his own country.
Spain’s left-wing government also congratulated
Petro on his “historic victory.”
“Colombia has elected a new president, has chosen
equality, social and environmental justice,” Prime Minister
Pedro Sanchez
tweeted.
Amid fears a tight result could spark post-election
violence, some 320,000 police and military were deployed to ensure security for
the 39 million registered voters.
The electoral observer mission said one of Petro’s
election monitors and a soldier were killed, both in the south.
Colombia is no stranger to political violence, with
five presidential candidates having been murdered over the course of the 20th
century.
‘No clear mandate’
Petro will have to deal with
a country reeling economically from the coronavirus pandemic, a spike in
drug-related violence and deep-rooted anger at the political establishment that
spilled over into mass anti-government protests in April 2021.
Almost 40 percent of the country lives in poverty
while 11 percent are unemployed.
“This result does not give the new president a clear
mandate to execute his policy without at least trying to address concerns from
his counterpart,” Sergio Guzman, president of the Colombia Risk Analysis
consultancy, told AFP.
Guzman said that unless Petro learns “how to govern
with the other half of the country, we can expect four years of stalemate and
brinksmanship.”
One major worry for many is Petro’s past as a
radical leftist urban guerrilla in the 1980s, who spent almost two years in
jail.
Left-wing ideology is intrinsically linked in many
Colombians’ minds to the country’s six-decade, multi-faceted conflict, leaving
many to fear what a Petro presidency would represent.
He has also vowed to negotiate with Colombia’s last
recognized Marxist guerrillas, the National Liberation Army.
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