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For the primary time, Colombia could have a leftist president.
Gustavo Petro, a former insurgent and a longtime senator who has pledged to rework the nation’s financial system, has received Sunday’s election, in accordance with preliminary outcomes, setting the third largest nation in Latin America on a radically new path.
Mr. Petro obtained greater than 50 p.c of the vote, with greater than 99 p.c counted Sunday night. His opponent, Rodolfo Hernández, a development magnate who had energized the nation with a scorched-earth anti-corruption platform, simply over 47 p.c.
Shortly after the vote, Mr. Hernández conceded to Mr. Petro.
“Colombians, in the present day nearly all of residents have chosen the opposite candidate,” he mentioned. “As I mentioned throughout the marketing campaign, I settle for the outcomes of this election.”
Mr. Petro’s victory displays widespread discontent in Colombia, with poverty and inequality on the rise and widespread dissatisfaction with a scarcity of alternative, points that despatched tons of of 1000’s of individuals to exhibit within the streets final 12 months.
“Your entire nation is begging for change,” mentioned Fernando Posada, a Colombian political scientist, “and that’s completely clear.”
The win is all of the extra important due to the nation’s historical past. For many years, the federal government fought a brutal leftist insurgency often known as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, with the stigma from the battle making it troublesome for a reputable left to flourish.
However the FARC signed a peace take care of the federal government in 2016, laying down their arms and opening house for a broader political discourse.
Mr. Petro had been a part of a distinct insurgent group, known as the M-19, which demobilized in 1990, and have become a political social gathering that helped rewrite the nation’s structure.
Each Mr. Petro and Mr. Hernández beat Federico Gutiérrez, a former large metropolis mayor backed by the conservative elite, in a primary spherical of voting on Might 29, sending them to a runoff.
Each males had billed themselves as anti-establishment candidates, saying they had been working in opposition to a political class that had managed the nation for generations.
Among the many elements that the majority distinguished them was how they considered the foundation of the nation’s issues.
Mr. Petro believes the financial system is damaged, overly reliant on oil export and a flourishing and unlawful cocaine enterprise that he mentioned has made the wealthy richer and poor poorer. He’s calling for a halt to all new oil exploration, a shift to creating different industries, and an enlargement of social packages, whereas imposing increased taxes on the wealthy.
“What now we have in the present day is the results of what I name ‘the depletion of the mannequin,’” Mr. Petro mentioned in an interview, referring to the present financial system. “The tip result’s a brutal poverty.”
His bold financial plan has, nevertheless, raised considerations. One former finance minister called his power plan “financial suicide.”
Mr. Petro will take workplace in August, and can face urgent points with world repercussions: Lack of alternative and rising violence, which have prompted document numbers of Colombians emigrate to america in current months; excessive ranges of deforestation within the Colombian Amazon, a crucial buffer in opposition to local weather change; and rising threats to democracy, a part of a development across the area.
He’ll face a deeply polarized society the place polls present rising mistrust in virtually all main establishments.
Mr. Petro’s might additionally reshape Colombia’s relationship with america.
For many years, Colombia has been Washington’s strongest ally in Latin America, forming the cornerstone of its safety coverage within the area. Throughout his marketing campaign, Mr. Petro promised to reassess that relationship, together with essential collaborations on medication, Venezuela and commerce.
Within the interview, Mr. Petro mentioned his relationship with america would give attention to working collectively to deal with local weather change, particularly halting the fast erosion of the Amazon.
“There’s a level of dialogue there,” he mentioned. “As a result of saving the Amazon rainforest entails some devices, some packages, that don’t exist in the present day, at the very least not with respect to america. It’s, for my part, the precedence.”
Megan Janetsky contributed reporting from Bucaramanga, Colombia, and Sofía Villamil and Genevieve Glatsky contributed reporting from Bogotá.
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