Who is Gustavo Petro, the moderate rebel who brings the left to power in Colombia | PROFILE

After four decades of struggle, first in arms and then in democracy, a bespectacled revolutionary who survived torture and exile is close to conquering power: Gustavo Petroat 62, could become the first leftist president of Colombia.

Petro sees himself as a stubborn “revolutionary”. In his third and last bid for the presidency, he defeated the elites he had always questioned and moderated his most extreme positions. He was the most voted candidate in the first round and on Sunday he will face the unpredictable Rodolfo Hernández, a 77-year-old independent millionaire.

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Short-sighted since childhood Petro he feels called to break a 200-year-old “history”. His forte are debates and the public square. An economist by profession and born into a middle-class family, he was educated by Lasallian priests.

Gustavo Petro has presented himself as the candidate for change, but his slogan was affected by the emergence of Rodolfo Hernández, a populist outsider. (Photo by Raul ARBOLEDA / AFP) (RAUL ARBOLEDA/)

It has always raised the flags of rupture and change. His promotion scares powerful sectors that fear that his government is a “leap into the void.”

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Others are repelled by his messianism. “He thinks he is predestined (…) the only person who can save Colombia”summarized a close source who spoke under reservation to the independent portal La Silla Vacía.

Petro presents himself as progressive rather than leftist, to avoid being associated with the Marxist guerrillas that for six decades have fueled the armed conflict and not a little hatred among Colombians.

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But his past in armed struggle haunts him and he is the workhorse of his opponents. Several times threatened with death and forced into a three-year exile in Europe, He had to shield himself to give his speeches on stage with a bulletproof vest, shields around him and at least 20 bodyguards on stage.

Left-wing presidential candidate Gustavo Petro is covered by a bodyguard holding a bulletproof shield during a rally in Medellin, Colombia, on May 20, 2022. (JOAQUIN SARMIENTO / AFP)

Married to Verónica Alcocer and father of six children, Petro confessed to AFP his fear of being assassinated.

the moderate

Petro militated for 12 years in the M-19, a nationalist guerrilla of urban origin, before signing peace in 1990. Admirer of the Nobel Prize winner Gabriel García Márquez, in hiding he adopted the name of Aureliano, in homage to the character of “One Hundred Years of Solitude”.

He was detained and tortured by soldiers, and was imprisoned for a year and a half. He was always a “mediocre” combatant, remember his former comrades-in-arms. In his biography he highlights it: “I never felt, unlike many of my colleagues, a military vocation (…) I wanted was to make the revolution”.

His “preferential option for the poor”, he maintains, does not come from Marxism but from the liberation theology.

Gustav Petro. (AFP).

It has also endorsed the defense of the environmentfor which it proposes to stop oil exploration (whose trade represents 4% of GDP) and initiate a “transition” towards clean energy.

Petro he wants to strengthen the state and collect more taxes from the rich. On the way to the ballot, he showed himself to be a moderate politician, close to the people and to feminism.

“When he got up on a platform and talked for an hour and a half (…) what he did was deepen his economic model (…) and that becomes a bit sophisticated”recognizes Alfonso Prada, head of the leftist debate.

Given the fears it provokes, promised that he would not seek re-election, prior constitutional reform, or personal revenge and that it would respect private property. “I say emphatically that I have never thought nor will I think of confiscating or impairing” the property, he said.

Colombian vice-presidential candidate Francia Márquez speaks after signing a programmatic inclusion agreement with representatives of different religious communities. (EFE / Carlos Ortega).

His daughter Sofía sums it up: Petro “is a man in deconstruction”.

Impetuous

Within his program he has also proposed reforming the police, implicated in human rights violations, and regulating promotions within the Armed Forces, which he considers classist. Petro he could be the first ex-guerrilla to whom the troops swear allegiance.

After signing the peace, he came to Congress in 1991 and later to the mayor’s office of Bogotá (2012-2015).

As a parliamentarian, he stood out for denouncing the links between politicians and the bloody far-right paramilitariesbut as mayor he gained a reputation for being authoritarian and part of the city was criticized for his chaotic plan to nationalize garbage collection.

Colombian leftist presidential candidate Gustavo Petro speaks during a feminist debate in Bogotá, on June 2, 2022. (DANIEL MUÑOZ / AFP).

Daniel García-Peña, Petro’s adviser at the time and who distanced himself from him because of his “despotism”, still remembers his “difficulties in teamwork”.

He has “a very impetuous temperament and authoritarianand when he insisted on carrying out his proposals (…) he did not know how to convene and summon the different sectors to put them into practice”, commented the also university professor.

Furthermore, he adds, “He won many fights at the same time and that generated a lot of frustration in the goals that he had set for himself.”

Petrothe moderate, however, gained “a certain maturity” and today is a “more serene, calm person,” contrasted a source who spoke with AFP under reservation.

Source: Elcomercio