Colombia's Historic Election and What a Petro Victory Means
ANASOFIA GIRARDOT | JUNE 26, 2022 | OPINIONS
After a second round of voting, leftist ex-guerilla member and former mayor Gustavo Petro won the 2022 Colombian presidential election on Sunday evening. Holding an extensive platform based on proposals such as protecting minority rights, eliminating government corruption, and increasing green energy sources, Petro, the leader of leftist party Colombia Humana, is Colombia’s first liberal president in its two hundred year history.
Alongside equally recognized Vice President Francia Márquez, who became the nation’s first Afro-Colombian executive leader, Petro’s victory marks a shifting point in the traditionally conservative country. With a major voter turnout of 55%, the highest in two decades, the Colombian populace were the ones who mobilized the decision to elect Petro against his right wing opponent Rodolfo Hernandez Suarez. Not only is this a surprising rate for a country with notoriously low voter participation, but it also demonstrated the effectiveness of Petro’s campaign mission to broaden voting in regions often neglected by candidates.
In a country that endured military violence from radical guerilla groups for more than fifty years, the decision to elect an ex-guerilla member shows that longstanding opinions towards the left are beginning to change. Unlike past elections in which candidates focused on ending guerilla and cartel warfare, voters sought candidates that tackled issues such as social justice and economic inequality. This especially rings true in a post-2016 Peace Accord society in which the armed conflict against the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) officially ended, bringing a new era of expected peace and healing.
But with continued guerilla attacks in rural areas and paramilitary groups in cahoots with politicians, Colombians from all regions expressed their boiling discontent with the longstanding government and directly acted with their vote. Not only is the demand for new leadership led by the impoverished and marginalized classes that have backed Petro since the first round, but also the people that are tired of constant disappointments from conservative presidents.
This turning point from the public was made clear during current President Ivan Duque’s term, who was relatively unknown until being backed by the controversial conservative Alvaro Uribe, a previous president accused of human rights violations for his supposed involvement in paramilitary groups along with government corruption charges. Fraught with political scandals from his mentor’s past and mass protests across the nation, Duque’s presidency worsened the doubts held by citizens. As the final push towards a liberal government, the ramifications from his coronavirus policies solidified voters’ dislike of Duque’s Uribe dominated presidency.
But even after securing the presidential cabinet, Petro’s past as an ex-guerilla member of the 19th of April Movement has brought adamant protests against his future term. Alongside infamous groups like the FARC, the M-19 were of the major guerilla groups in Colombia’s past, cementing their legacy of terrorism with the Siege the Colombian Supreme Court in 1985. Being directly involved in the M-19 during the 1980s until his arrest in 1984, dissidents of Petro claim that the presidency should not be in the hands of somebody who directly contributed to one of Colombia’s darkest moments.
Petro’s background was an especially contentious topic during the presidential elections when opposing candidates such as former Senator Ingrid Betancourt and former Mayor Federico Gutierrez claimed that the newly elected president still held ties to serious ex-guerilla criminals and would transform Colombia into a Marxist dictatorship. Although those claims are actively denied and criticized by Petro, the heightened fears that voters have over the likelihood of repeating decades of military violence is one that continues to influence the public’s polarizing opinion of him.
As Petro’s win brings a politically divergent shift in leadership and the advent of a new presidency, the possibility of effective change is more positive than expected. Having been led by typical conservative presidents, Colombia’s recently unorthodox direction creates an uncertain yet hopeful path for the entire country. Even if there is a leftist victory from a diverse president and cabinet that contrasts the long thread of immensely privileged ones, any guarantee of change can be easily washed away by Colombia’s lengthy history of failed initiatives and political violence. With a slow recovery from COVID-19’s impact, the nation’s economic fate hangs from a compromising position if Petro’s policy of economic diversity and decreased oil dependency worsens Colombia’s situation in an inflated global market. The persistent shadow of Colombia’s unresolved guerilla past also poses a threat to the success of Petro’s future term if his plans to properly integrate the 2016 Peace Deal are not fruitful, especially with present societal tension against former guerilla fighters and the gradual rise of faction violence in rural regions.
If there is one certainty about Colombia’s future with Petro as its literal and figurative revolutionary president, it is the strength of the nation’s people. Even after enduring nearly a century of political violence, economic hardships, and suppression from both sides of the political spectrum, the power of the people’s undying voice never ceased. In the case of Petro’s remarkable victory, it serves as a testament to this stubborn yet courageous determination that gave him the highest position in the country. Holding the weight of a populace’s understandable expectations after decades of deception and disappointment, it should be assumed that Petro will deliver his promises with as much force as possible during his four years. If he does not, there will be the force of a very frustrated and impossibly resilient 50.88 million people to be reckoned with.