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.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese