Tue, Jun 19, 2018 page7

• New Colombia leader urges unity after divisive poll

  CHALLENGING TASK: Ivan Duque called for national unity and healing, but will have to address unease over benefits extended to former rebel leaders and protests from the left

  • AP, BOGOTA
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  Colombian president-elect Ivan Duque appealed for unity after on Sunday winning a runoff election against leftist former guerrilla Gustavo Petro, whose ascent shook Colombia’s political establishment and laid bare deep divisions over the nation’s peace process.

  The conservative Duque, the protege of a powerful former president, was elected with 54 percent of the vote.

  He finished more than 12 points ahead of Petro, although the runner-up’s performance at the ballot box was the best ever for the left in one of Latin America’s most conservative nations.

  

  A soldier on Sunday checks a motorcyclist’s papers near La Granja, Colombia, as forces patrol a rural area during the second round of the presidential election.

  Photo: Reuters

  FRONTAL ATTACK

  When Duque takes office in August at age 42, he would become Colombia’s youngest president in more than a century, and in his first remarks as president-elect he vowed to work tirelessly to heal divisions and govern on behalf of all Colombians.

  He also promised a frontal attack on corruption while addressing a surge in cocaine production that he called a threat to national security.

  

  Newly elected Colombian president Ivan Duque, center, celebrates with supporters in Bogota, Colombia, on Sunday.

  Photo: AFP

  “This is the opportunity that we have been waiting for — to turn the page on the politics of polarization, insults and venom,” Duque told jubilant supporters on Sunday night, joined by his young family.

  The election was the first since outgoing Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos signed the 2016 peace agreement with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the race ultimately ended up being defined by the divisive accord.

  Duque’s promise to heal the scars from five decades of bloody conflict will demand a quick response.

  OLD WOUNDS

  The FARC rebels who demobilized under the accord are struggling to reinsert themselves into civilian life in a nation where many people are hesitant to forgive. Vast swaths of remote territory remain under the control of violent drug mafias and residual rebel bands.

  Duque, who only entered politics in 2014 after being lured back to Colombia from a cozy life in Washington by former Colombian president Alvaro Uribe, in his victory speech repeated pledges made on the campaign trail to roll back benefits in the peace accord for top rebel commanders behind atrocities.

  He and running mate Marta Lucia Ramirez, who is to become Colombia’s first female vice president, have promised to make changes in the accord, but Duque also has vowed not to “shred it to pieces” as some of his hawkish allies have urged.

  LEFTIST SUCCESS

  Petro energized young voters and drew millions to public plazas with fiery speeches vowing to improve the lives of poor Colombians long neglected by the political elite.

  His more than 8 million votes marked the biggest success for a leftist presidential contender ever in Colombia, where politicians on the left have long been stigmatized because of the civil conflict.

  Petro took his loss in stride, refusing to call it a defeat.

  In a concession speech that at times sounded celebratory, he challenged Duque to break with his hardline allies — Uribe in particular.

  He also promised to mobilize his considerable following into a combative opposition that will fight for social reforms and defend the peace accord.

  “Those 8 million Colombians are not going to let Colombia return to war,” Petro said to thunderous applause from supporters chanting “resistance.”

  Duque’s detractors have warned that his victory could throw an already delicate peace process into disarray.
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