Ex-guerrilla Gustavo Petro was on Sunday elected the first ever left-wing president of Colombia, after beating millionaire businessman Rodolfo Hernandez in a tense and unpredictable runoff election.
With all votes counted, Petro — the 62-year-old former mayor of Bogota — won with 50.4 percent compared with 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,” Petro said.
Photo: AFP
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 is to succeed the deeply unpopular conservative Ivan Duque, who was barred by Colombia’s constitution from standing for re-election, in a country saddled with widespread poverty, a surge in violence and other woes.
Speaking to delirious 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 said.
“We want a Colombia that through its diversity is one Colombia,” he added.
In another historic achievement for a nation where 10 percent of the population identify as African descendants, environmental campaigner and feminist Francia Marquez, 40, is to become Colombia’s first black female vice president.
“The great challenge that all of us Colombians have is reconciliation,” said Marquez, 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.
“I’m celebrating because finally we’re going to have change ... this shows there is hope,” 25-year-old academic Lusimar Asprilla said.
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,” Chilean President Gabriel Boric wrote on Twitter.
“The will of the Colombian people has been heard, it went out to defend the path to democracy and peace,” Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken sent congratulations to “the people of Colombia for making their voices heard in a free and fair presidential election.”
Amid fears a tight result could spark post-election violence, about 320,000 police and military were deployed to ensure security for the 39 million registered voters.
The electoral observer mission said that 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.
Before the first round of this year’s presidential election, several candidates received death threats.
Petro will have to deal with a country reeling economically from the COVID-19 pandemic, a spike in drug-trafficking related violence and deep-rooted anger at the political establishment that spilled over into mass anti-government protests in April last year.
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,” said Sergio Guzman, president of the Colombia Risk Analysis consultancy.
Unless Petro learns “how to govern with the other half of the country, we can expect four years of stalemate and brinksmanship,” he said.
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