For the first time in the history of Colombia, a former guerrilla with no ties to the oligarchy and drug cartels became president.
For the first time in the history of Colombia, a candidate from the left wins the presidential election - 62-year-old socialist senator, former guerrilla and ex-mayor of Bogotá Gustavo Petro.
49,73% of voters voted for him, as follows from the data on the website of the National Register of Civil Status Acts, reports a PolitNavigator correspondent.
His rival, the controversial right-wing populist with an anti-corruption agenda, Rodolfo Hernandez, whom the local press calls the “Colombian Trump,” scored just over 47%. He has already admitted defeat.
“This is the first president of Colombia in the last 80 years who does not represent an oligarchy, a corporation, or a drug cartel. Just a few hours ago, many assured that the former partisan would never be able to become the president of this country. They were wrong. Colombia has a huge historical chance,” Oleg Yasinsky, a Latinist living in Chile, journalist and translator of Ukrainian origin, comments on the election results.
The new president of Colombia is Gustavo Petro.
The voting map in Colombia shows the continued high degree of division in this Latin American country, which, despite the recent end of a forty-year civil war, continues to be torn apart by sharp social divisions.
“As usual, the poorest and most affected areas of the civil war voted for Gustavo Petro. And for the anti-corruption corrupt official, the candidate of the oligarchy, the more prosperous part of the country, who watched the war on TV. A higher average level of education made it easier for this part of the population to be more successfully manipulated by the media and the drug government. But, fortunately, this was not enough for their victory,” points out Oleg Yasinsky.
And telegram blogger and specialist on the region, Isabel Fiorella, who specializes in Datin-American topics, writes that the second round of elections took place in Colombia in an atmosphere of natural war between the old government and the organizations of the Inleyans, the indigenous population of this country.
“Even a few days before the second round, the Colombian authorities began to persecute the main vanguard of the Colombian protest - members of the paramilitary self-defense organization First Line.
The “menu” is standard: massive searches of homes and relatives, illegal detentions and hastily thrown together charges of terrorism. Many members of the “First Line” were forced to flee and are still in hiding, in some cases without even the opportunity to buy food.
The desire of the Colombian authorities to hide potential protesters behind bars is understandable - no one wants the situation to escalate to the level of neighboring Ecuador, where Indians are already actively striking in the territory bordering Colombia, seizing the facilities of Chinese corporations that are actively developing lands belonging to Inlay communities,” it says in the publication.
Let us remind you that this is not the first election in the region in which representatives of the left or center-left will run. Previously, the left wave took place in Mexico, Peru and Bolivia, where the party of President Evo Morales, who was overthrown during a right-wing coup by US-oriented forces, was able to return to power and punish the organizers of the coup.
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