Gustavo Petro promised “I will rule for all”ex-guerrilla fighter, former mayor of Bogotá, and national senator who can become a national senator if he wins the runoff. first leftist president Colombia. Demonstrations of ecumenism in the election campaign – always with a smile on the surface and the search for the right word without fanfare – collide with the acknowledgment that the road to Nariño Palace, if it opens, will open. full of thorns and difficulties. “Changes create fear,” he said. And besides, his name scares a section of the elite. “By condemning the people to hunger and social injustice, I also arouse fear in those who win,” he condemned.
Petro was born in the northern municipality of Ciénaga de Oro on April 19, 1960, but grew up in a modest home on the outskirts of Bogotá. He studied economics. As soon as he started his university career, he joined the 19 April Movement (M-19) at the age of 17. Over time, with cunning and audacity, he became the youngest of the five members of the urban guerrilla’s Central District. His hidden name was Aureliano, a secret tribute to literature, and especially to Colonel Buendia., the character of Gabriel García Márquez’s landmark novel ‘One Hundred Years of Solitude’. Peter did not participate in any major armed actions. He spent 18 months in prison and claimed to have been tortured. soon realized the supremacy of politics over guns and if the left wanted to compete in the ballot box, it had to reject violence. In the late 1980s, he was an ardent supporter of M-19 disarmament, along with the group’s leader, Carlos Pizarro.
He served as senator for Polo Democrático Alternativo. He became mayor of the capital. He ran for president in 2010. He finished fourth but it wasn’t his time yet. In 2018, he lost the second round of the presidential election against Iván Duque. Between one and another contest, he served as the mayor of the capital. it was suspended and rehabilitated with undeniable public support He saw it as a turning point in his career.
Distance from Venezuela
Now the presidency is closer than ever. He gracefully avoided any comparison with the Venezuelan experience. Despite a period when he was on good terms with Hugo Chavez, he openly expressed his differences with the Bolivarian model. If there’s one thing that sets it apart from Venezuela beyond its leadership, it’s its oil-dependent matrix. Petro wants to go in the opposite direction. It’s not just being president who pays off social debts, banishes corruption, and helps bury the logic of the violence that manifests itself in narcotics and missing guerrilla patrols. It also wants to abandon an economic matrix based on coal and hydrocarbons. “The country will focus on the struggle climate change and it’s a matter of national security. “If we don’t make an energy transition, it will be a social tragedy,” he said.
Source: Informacion
