Tears and joy: the images of Gustavo Petro’s victory in the Colombian presidential elections | PHOTOS

Colombia elected the first left-wing president in its history, the senator and former guerrilla Gustavo Petrowho won the ballot with a breaking speech and the promise to transform a divided country in crisis.

Petro62 years old, won with 50.4% of the votes the independent millionaire Rodolfo Hernández, who obtained 47.3%, according to the official count. It was an advantage of 716,201 votes.

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“From today Colombia changes, a real change that leads us to some of the approaches we have made to these squares: the politics of love (…), a politics of understanding and dialogue”, proclaimed Petroleader of the opposition, in his victory speech.

Hernandez, a 77-year-old “ousider” without a political party, quickly conceded defeat, which allayed fears of protests in the face of a tight outcome. During the tense day, Petro fueled suspicions of fraud.

Newly elected Colombian President Gustavo Petro celebrates in Bogotá, on June 19, 2022, after winning the second round. (Daniel MUÑOZ / AFP).

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In the center of Bogotá, thousands of his followers, most of them young, exploded with joy.

“I celebrate because we are finally going to have a change, this is something that the territories expected (…) this shows that there is hope”, Lusimar Asprilla, a 25-year-old African academic, told AFP.

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A Colombia clearly divided, it will enter a new political era without a government of the traditional parties, defeated in the first round that saw Petro triumph.

Environmentalist Francia Márquez, 40, was also elected as Colombia’s first black vice president.

Petro will govern from August 7 for a period of four years and will succeed the unpopular Iván Duque, who congratulated his bitter opponent. Hernández also sent a message to the next president.

“I wish the lord Gustavo Petro that he knows how to lead the country, that he is faithful to his discourse against corruption and that he does not disappoint those who trusted him,” he said.

Hand in hand with its future ruler, Colombia also gets on the train of the left that runs through Latin America in an unprecedented way. Leaders of the region hailed his victory.

“We will work together for the unity of our continent in the challenges of a rapidly changing world”wrote the president of Chile, Gabriel Boric.

Two Colombias

Petro won the presidency with the highest electoral participation of this century: 58% of the 39 million Colombians eligible to vote went to the polls.

In Congress it has an important bench, but without ensuring majorities.

The left triumphed after the massive and bloody protests of 2019, 2020 and 2021, where young people who demanded more study opportunities and jobs were harshly repressed.

Then the streets already reflected a deep malaise as a result of the gap between rich and poor. Colombia has the highest inequality in the region after Brazil, according to the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean.

The pandemic worsened poverty, which today reaches 39% of the 50 million Colombians. Unemployment is around 11% and informality 45%.

Among the challenges for the future government are also drug trafficking and associated violence, with various armed groups expanding throughout the territory.

In his speech, Petro he alluded to the divisions and wounds left behind by an aggressive campaign.

“Change consists precisely in leaving hate behind; in leaving sectarianism behind. The elections more or less showed two Colombias, close in terms of votes. We want Colombia, in the midst of its diversity, to be a Colombia”, she pointed out.

Francia Márquez will be the new vice president of Colombia after the victory of Gustavo Petro. (STR/AFP).

Petro and Hernández came to this election with two proposals for rupture, but with opposing models.

The elected president intends to strengthen the State, transform the health and pension systems, and suspend oil exploration to make way for clean energy in the face of the climate crisis.

He also announced that he will restore relations with Venezuela, broken since 2019, will implement the 2016 peace agreement with the extinct FARC and will dialogue with the National Liberation Army, the last recognized guerrilla in the country.

And the military?

Petro He must also overcome the resistance of powerful sectors and the Armed Forces, who still blame him for his past as a guerrilla despite the fact that he signed peace in 1990.

They fear that his reforms will affect private property and lead the country towards a failed socialism. During the campaign, the elected president promised before a notary that he would not expropriate property, and later assured that he would not amend the Constitution to stay in power either.

Perhaps one of the greatest expectations is in his relationship with the military, who will have to swear allegiance to an old adversary in a country traumatized by a six-decade conflict with far-left rebels in the center.

“The mistrust between the president and the military is significant. Petro will have to select a Defense Minister who has the respect and trust” of the troops, analyst Sergio Guzmán, from the Colombia Risk Analysis consultancy, told AFP.

Otherwise, the transition will be “a disaster,” he added.

After a conflictive mandate as head of the Bogota mayor’s office, Petro will have to prove that he is capable of working as a team to govern the country and reach consensus.

He has a “personality that many associate with intransigence, stubbornness and with an ego that limits dialogue,” warns the political scientist at the Javeriana University Patricia Muñoz.

Source: Elcomercio