Ex-rebel emerges as favorite in Colombian presidential race

FUSAGASUGA, Colombia (AP) — Flanked by bodyguards with bulletproof shields, Gustavo Petro stood on a stage and lashed out at Colombia’s political elite in a speech to the inhabitants of Fusagasuga, a rural town where farmers are struggling.

The leftist presidential applicant spoke of the need to safeguard nearby farmers from heavily sponsored overseas competitors. In the crowded general public square, supporters waving the flags of opposition functions cheered when Petro promised to oust a political class that “prefers to get the job done with criminals.”

“What we give is a distinct way to understand Colombia,” Petro reported in an hourlong deal with. “We want a region exactly where the condition gives essential legal rights like education and learning and overall health, and can finance them due to the fact there is a effective economic system.”

With an psychological anti-establishment discourse and claims to raise condition involvement in the economic climate, Petro has garnered a cozy lead in polls as Colombia heads into Sunday’s presidential election.

The senator, who started his profession in politics as a rebel, is aiming to develop into the first leftist president in a nation that has extended been dominated by politicians with ties to rich family members and potent business teams. The recent president — who simply cannot look for reelection — is Ivan Duque, a conservative from Bogota’s elite.

Petro’s supporters say he will concentrate on cutting down longstanding inequalities that have fueled decades of political violence and led to the development of potent drug cartels.

His critics, having said that, fear that Petro will upend the country’s industry-friendly economic system.

Politicians on the appropriate frequently solid the senator as a populist leader in the mildew of former Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, and issue his commitment to democracy. It is an accusation denied by Petro, who states he would like tranquil modifications that will benefit long-neglected teams.

“If he wins, we are in for four turbulent years” said Laura Gil, a political scientist at Bogota’s Javeriana University. “He will have to show that his leftist motion is prepared to work in just the rules of democracy and management the most radical users of his coalition, when going through appropriate-wing groups that will make every effort to block his proposals.”

Petro has been preventing towards the odds for many years in his quest to transform Colombian politics.

He commenced his occupation as a community organizer for the M-19 guerrilla movement, aiding a team of 400 squatter family members consider over a plot of land in the city of Zipaquira.

He gained the housing struggle, but was captured and used two a long time in jail on weapons rates. He resurfaced in Colombia’s political scene in the early 90s, when his rebel firm designed a peace offer with Colombia’s governing administration and participated in drafting a new structure.

Petro gained national recognition as a congressman in 2006, when he investigated conservative legislators with ties to paramilitary teams and exposed evidence of their crimes on nationally televised debates.

Dealing with many death threats, he’s run for Colombia’s presidency 2 times and served as Bogota’s mayor from 2011 to 2015, the place he led efforts to decrease bus fares and wrestle the city’s trash selection system from non-public contractors that expense the metropolis thousands and thousands of dollars.

Even though some of his suggestions, like mobile overall health care models in bad neighborhoods, proved prosperous, his administration was also marked by significant numbers of unexecuted tasks and repeated clashes with technological advisers and customers of his very own cupboard.

A examine financed by the central govt proposing a subway in the metropolis was ditched by Petro, who wanted to use the income for a tramway. When that became unfeasible, the mayor returned to the subway strategy, but experienced much too little time left to execute it, claimed Juan Carlos Florez, a historian who was then a town council member.

Petro’s third presidential operate arrives as Colombia is reeling from substantial costs of unemployment and inflation fed by the pandemic. Malnutrition has greater to stages unseen in a 10 years, and violence proceeds in some rural spots regardless of a 2016 peace offer with the Groundbreaking Armed Forces of Colombia, that was created to finish 50 percent a century of conflict that expense 220,000 lives and displaced thousands and thousands.

Now more compact armed groups are battling above drug routes, mines and other assets deserted by the rebel team acknowledged as the FARC.

Petro has promised to resume peace talks with another guerrilla group, the Nationwide Liberation Army, that the place suspended during Duque’s administration and he also proposed a peace offer with the Gulf Clan drug trafficking team that would involve reduced sentences in exchange for telling the reality about their crimes and reparations for their victims.

Petro says he would like to avert more outbreaks of rural violence by creating work in the countryside and ensuring farms are commercially feasible. For Petro, that will get started with bigger import obligations on foodstuff that can be created in Colombia and possessing the condition buys crops from community farmers.

The senator has also proposed cost-free college tuition for all youth and providing jobs with a essential income to “those who cannot obtain operate via other signifies.”

Although these guarantees audio bold, Petro’s advisors say they are essential.

“We do not believe that Colombia’s problem is whether it veers to the still left or to the appropriate,” reported Alfonso Prada, a centrist politician who joined Petro’s campaign two months back as a discussion strategist. “What Gustavo Petro is proposing is using a leap forward, to peace with social justice, offering persons the possibility to reside with dignity.”

But critics have expressed doubts about how Petro will finance his packages.

The prospect, who describes himself as an environmentalist, has mentioned that oil wells are “poisoning” the countryside and has promised to suspend oil exploration upon using office.

He’s vowed to exchange oil royalties with profits from tourism and bigger corporate taxes, nevertheless his critics say this is unrealistic. According to Colombia’s Central Lender, the region attained $3.1 billion from tourism in 2021, but oil exports produced nearly 4 moments as a great deal income.

“We want a improve in this state, but it just cannot be a leap of faith without a parachute,” explained Federico Gutierrez, a former Medellin mayor who has been Petro’s main opponent for most of the presidential race. Gutierrez has claimed he will protect enterprises and make employment as a result of higher non-public financial investment.

Gutierrez and his allies frequently look at Petro to Chavez, who undermined the independence of his country’s judiciary, nationalized hundreds of firms and created regulations to censure impartial media.

Petro has responded with symbolic gestures like signing a notarized pledge that said he will not nationalize personal home. He’s also backtracked on a earlier proposal to draft a new constitution.

But the prospect and his crew have also suggested that they will meddle with some institutions. In a modern tv discussion, Petro termed for changes in the way the central bank’s board of directors is picked so that “productive sectors” are represented.

Analysts say there will be constraints on Petro’s electricity if he becomes president. “His motion will not have a majority in congress,” reported Daniel García Peña, a columnist and former aide to Petro who now backs centrist candidate Sergio Fajardo.

Polls propose that Petro is likely to tumble quick of the 50% mark desired to steer clear of a runoff with whomever sites next in the field of 7 candidates.

Surveys give Petro a cozy direct towards Gutierrez in a head-to-head race, but show the election would be incredibly shut if he has to experience Rodolfo Hernandez, a 77-year-previous real estate tycoon with no ties to political get-togethers, who has promised to slash governing administration investing and deal with corruption.

Hernandez, who is paying out for his campaign with his personal cash, has mentioned he will turn the presidential palace into a museum, and has promised rewards for citizens who denounce corrupt officers.

Florez stated that the election underlines how Colombia’s inhabitants has exhausted of the nation’s establishment and is craving for a leader who defies the position quo.

“Petro is an example of how the globe is returning to the politics of enthusiasm,” Florez said. “To crusading leaders who chance it all” for their bring about.