Gustavo Petro: the final victory of the left and the “nobodies” in Colombia

Decades of conservative, guerrilla and paramilitary governments and a peace agreement have had to pass so that in Colombia May a left-wing candidate win presidential elections who, integrated into his formation, bring victims of that conflict and represent the impoverished majorities of the country.

This is how they have seen it at the Movistar Arena, the Bogotá coliseum that the winner of the elections, Gustavo Petro, chose to celebrate his victory this Sunday.

Look: Maduro congratulates Petro for his “historic victory” in the Colombian elections

the wannabe leftist he won the ballot with 11,278,437 votes, 50.46% of the total, compared to 10,569,258 (47.29)% for his rival, the populist Rodolfo Hernández, with 99.91% of the tables informed in the pre-count of the Registry.

With the space very empty, despite the hundreds of people waiting outside who were unable to enter due to the heavy security surrounding the candidate, the supporters of Petro They have received the results with enthusiasm and fervor.

The silence, however, was notorious with the first results that gave Hernández the winner, his rival who was driven by a populist discourse against corruption that has managed to capture the discontented Colombians that they were not attracted to the change that Petro proposed.

As new pre-count results bulletins arrived from the Registrar’s Office, the excitement grew, with shouts of enthusiasm, until with 80% of the tables informed, the presenters of the event gave Petro the winner when he advanced almost four points to Hernández. , and the coliseum burst into confetti.

A VICTORY OF WOMEN AND “THE NOBODY”

“It is an incredible advance because for years the extreme right has governed us with policies that have impoverished the entire population, which has left the majority in oblivion”assured Efe Lizeth Moreno, a follower and voter of the leftist.

As for so many feminists and young people, it is “a beautiful victory that we women who are part of the national territory celebrate”, since “women have also given birth to this change”, she assured, appropriating the words of the elected vice president, France Marquez.

Marquezan Afro-Colombian lawyer and activist, is one of the keys to the victory of the left and has captivated the masses with a speech of change, promising to make “dignity become habit” in Colombia and “living tasty”, exemplifying so many victims of the conflict who will finally have a voice in the Government.

In fact, the department where he comes from MarquezCauca, one of the hardest hit by the conflict, his candidacy, that of the Historical Pacthas won with 79.02% of the votes, just as it has done in the entire Pacific, which is the Afro-descendant region of the country and the poorest.

Supporters of presidential candidate Gustavo Petro, with the Alianza Histórico coalition, celebrate after their candidate won the second round of presidential elections in Bogotá, Colombia. (AP/Jaime Saldarriaga/)

THE HISTORICAL YEARNING

the of Petro It was a dream of years. The first time he tried to run for the Presidency was in 2010, and since then his goal has been the Casa Nariño, where he will finally arrive on August 7, when he succeeds Iván Duque.

Activist Levy Rincón now sees, with tears, the dream of Petro fulfilled, a wish that he also shared, since he has been supporting him since he was mayor of Bogotá between 2012 and 2015.

He was confident that “his project could represent a large part of the Colombians that we have been forgotten by the State and by the aristocracies and oligarchies here,” he tells Efe.

So this vote is going to mean “the true entrance of democracy”, although the dream of the president-elect, who was a guerrilla member of the demobilized April 19 Movement (M-19) in the 1980s, arrives diluted in a confluence of forces of many kinds.

In fact, this very Thursday Petro insisted that his political project was not of leftsbut it was a space where different forces converged, but also from the center and even conservatives.

He has promised to start a “great national agreement” from tomorrow in which the whole of society is involved, including the one that hates him so much and that integrates the so-called “anti-petrism”, whom he will have to start conquering from now on so as not to delve into the deep divisions that exist in Colombia.

Source: Elcomercio