Gustavo Petro Is Elected As Colombia's First Leftist President

 Gustavo Petro, A Former Rebel, Is Elected As Colombia's First Leftist President.

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Gustavo Petro, a former guerrilla combatant, has been elected president of Colombia, making him the region's first leftist leader.

In a runoff election on Sunday, Petro defeated business tycoon and former Bucaramanga mayor Rodolfo Hernández with 50.47 percent of the vote. Petro will take office in July and face a number of issues, not the least of which is the growing unrest over inequality and rising living expenses. With nearly all votes tabulated, the election officials reported that Hernández had received 47.27 percent of the vote.

Following comparable successes for the left in Peru, Chile, and Honduras, Petro's election represents a sea change for Colombia, a nation that has never before had a leftist president.

Shortly after the results were released, Petro received congratulations from outgoing conservative President Iván Duque, and Hernández immediately admitted defeat.

In a video posted to social media, Hernández said, "I accept the result, as it should be if we want our institutions to remain robust. "I genuinely believe that everyone will benefit from this choice."

Additionally, Colombia chose its first Black woman to serve as vice president. Francia Márquez, Petro's running mate, is an attorney and prominent environmentalist whose resistance to illicit mining has drawn threats and a grenade attack in 2019. Voters in the first round of the election last month rejected long-ruling centrist and right-leaning politicians and opted for two outsiders in the third-most populous country in Latin America due to widespread unhappiness with rising inequality, inflation, and violence.

A Mixed History

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Petro, who was raised in the communist guerrilla movement known as the 19th of April Movement (M19), which was created in protest of alleged election fraud in 1970, was born in the small hamlet of Ciénaga de Oro in rural north Colombia. The organization was a component of the so-called second wave of guerrilla movements in the nation that swept the area in the 1970s as a result of the Cuban Revolution.

Although M19 was linked to criminal behavior, including reported kidnappings for ransom, Petro claims he engaged in lawful activities to encourage people to resist what he called a "fake democracy," even holding office as a councilman in Zipaquirá. 

Police detained Petro in 1985 because he was hiding weapons. Soon after, M19 launched an assault to seize control of the Supreme Court building in Bogota that resulted in at least 98 deaths, including 12 magistrates (11 are still missing). Petro disputes that he was a part of the assault that happened while he was incarcerated.

A Persistent Campaign

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Since his defeat in the 2018 election, Petro has made an effort to allay concerns that his economic plan is "too extreme" for Colombia. This proposal also calls for a halt to fossil fuel exploration and revision of international trade agreements. Since then, he has surrounded himself with more conventional politicians who could forge ties with the ruling class.

He is now portraying himself as a different kind of progressive. He committed in April that if elected, he would not expropriate any private land. In addition, he has chosen a moderate to serve as his minister of finance and has sought to forge international alliances with modern progressives rather than established left-wing figures like Bolivia's Evo Morales.