Colombia: Can leftist Gustavo Petro turn out to be president?

Even though he would now not turn out to be Colombia’s first-ever leftist president, Gustavo Petro has already made ancient previous by managing to near alive at Sunday’s vote.

If there has been one certainty all over Colombia’s violent political previous, it is that being on the left of the political spectrum and being successful, as neatly, supposed that you would be able to now not attain energy or that your lifestyles could be scale back rapid in case you befell to acquire that a ways.

Exact to name about a: Luis Carlos Galan used to be riddled with bullets at a campaign pause fair days before the elections in 1989; Carlos Pizarro, a worn revolt commander of the M-19 circulation, used to be assassinated the next 300 and sixty five days; and most famously firebrand reformist candidate Jorge Eliecer Gaitan used to be shot dull in 1948, a killing that’s viewed as the muse of the violent civil confrontations that Colombia has been unable to fully resolve to in the indicate time.

At Fifty eight, Gustavo Petro guarantees to defy that ancient previous on Sunday, presenting himself as the heir to these terminated leaders. He survived an strive on his lifestyles a pair of months in the past when a bullet drilled by technique of his armoured van.

« Ours is a nation the put change has been massacred for 2 centuries, » he mentioned. « But now we are able to alter that. I will likely be the one to alter that. »

Bespectacled, brainy and aloof, Petro used to be viewed as a in point of fact lengthy-shot candidate.

By design of the pressure of his rhetoric, he’s working a shut 2d to very top-wing candidate Ivan Duque, a pupil of controversial worn President Alvaro Uribe.  And polls contemporary he’s closing in.

He has been sonsistently attracting tall crowds at his campaign events, rattling the nation’s historical conservative elite that has continuously kept a tight grip on energy and voters’ apathy.

« I originate now not advise issues are OK as they’re in Colombia, » Petro mentioned. « There could be an stout social inequality; we are the third most unequal society in the sector. We have one of many most unhealthy states. And we are facing the legacy of a political class that has now not even been high-quality of giving education to our society. »

His followers are mostly lower- and heart-class Colombians, occupied along with his prose of social justice and reforms, as neatly as his radical assaults towards corruption and inequality.

« He furious a fervour among the of us that has been unheard for loads of generations. I deem that since Gaitan no Colombian politicians has managed to so completely describe our complications and resolve them, » Silvio Jimenez, a automobile provider driver in Bogota, told Al Jazeera. 

Socialist distress

Petro’s candidacy, however, has sparked as noteworthy hope and enthusiasm as it has stoked fears among the nation’s elite.

They distress he can also flip Colombia into one other Venezuela, which is going by technique of its worst social and economic disaster after virtually two a protracted time of Chavista rule.

Petro proposes to transform the nation’s economic mannequin, transferring Colombia away from its reliance on oil and coal in favour of easy energy. 

He additionally needs to develop taxes on unproductive landowners and redistribute land. 

Petro insists these are only total-sense reforms.

« What I am proposing is a heart-class society to which we are able to also fair silent all belong. No longer one with fair grand, prosperous of us on one aspect and uncomfortable loss of life of starvation on the various. We are able to get in that heart class the creative private initiative, the instruments to lead to alter. »

But many in the alternate neighborhood are jumpy of that form of change.

« He is unhealthy for Colombia, » a director of an funding firm, who wished now not to be named, told Al Jazeera.  « He needs to open a class battle, » the director added. « His acquire could be depraved for alternate and for staff. International investments in the nation luxuriate in already come to a cease as investors wait to discover if he’ll be president. »

From revolt to politician

Petro says the desperate situation of Colombia’s uncomfortable and the 1973 coup towards Chilean socialist President Salvador Allende sparked his political awakening.

At 17, he joined the urban revolt group M-19. While he says he by no design participated in armed circulation, Petro rose fleet to the political leadership of the group. Within the mid-1980s, he used to be arrested by the navy – for possession of weapons – and tortured.

Following a peace deal between the M-19 and the authorities in the Nineties, Petro ran for put of dwelling of job, changing into a revered, firebrand senator.  

From Congress, he denounced collusion betweenestablishment politicians and paramilitary leaders, implicating President Alvaro Uribe himself.

He failed in his first toddle as president in 2010, however suceeded in his snort to turn out to be mayor of the capital, Bogota – the 2d most grand political put of dwelling in the nation – the next 300 and sixty five days.

His time-frame as mayor used to be marked by controversy. Critics pronounce he confirmed his autocratic aspect as he tried to bewitch on the political and economic powers that ran the metropolis.

Political allies and collaborators accused him of now not being attentive to others and being unable to negotiate. A minimal of 12 shut allies resigned their posts. Antonio Navarro, a revered leftist politician who used to be his chief of group mentioned Petro used to be a « Lone Ranger ». 

« These controversies utterly elevated the dread », political analyst Jorge Restrepo told Al Jazeera. « The radicalism of his proposals for the presidency are the same, » Restrepo mentioned.

« He needs to very much develop spending despite the indisputable fact that it is unclear how he’ll pay for it. And he has this anti-alternate droop and absence of compromise that remain worrisome. »  

The advantages of peace

Jose Antequera, the son of a leftist political activist assassinated in 1989, mentioned the assaults are distress mongering from the nation’s elite who favor to e-book decided of change.

« There is a behavior in Colombia, which tries to disqualify one’s adversary in snort to e-book decided of having to mission his tips, » Antequera told Al Jazeera.

« Unless lately interior battle used to be the indispensable pretext to e-book decided of change, claiming that the left can also now not govern as it used to be complicit with armed rebels, » he mentioned.

« Now that now now not being the case, of us are initiating to focal level on their complications for the indispensable time, resembling lack of high-quality public education, a responsive neatly being machine. They’ll now now not be hidden. »

Many agree that the 2016 landmark peace agreement with FARC rebels has performed noteworthy to begin the door to a viable candidate from the left, lifting a a protracted time-feeble taboo.

Petro is gay about that, announcing: « We are able to leave in the inspire of the political machinery, the corruption, the hatred, the revenge, the violence and at final blueprint a tall nation of peace and democracy. Social justice is the contrary of inequality. »  

If polls are to be believed, Petro has a well-known gamble to acquire the runoff in June can also fair silent he come in 2d on Sunday. 

But it is decided that the easy indisputable fact that he’s gotten this a ways design the nation and its democracy could well at final turn out to be accessible to all Colombians.