Gustavo Petro along with Antanas Mockus and Francia Márquez. Behind is the mother of Dilan Cruz, a young man killed by police during anti-Iván Duque government protests VANNESSA JIMENEZ (REUTERS)
After a long political career, the moment was finally in favor of Gustavo Petro, who has just established himself as Colombia’s first left leader. Several factors conspired to make this victory possible, but one of the most important was growing popular anger at the poor government of President Duque, Bishop of Álvaro Uribe, who was amid a pandemic that was exacerbating already chronic problems of poverty and inequality , showed callousness and disregard for the needs of the majority, to the point of proposing a premature tax reform that unleashed a social explosion of immense proportions that was brutally crushed by the police forces. Petro was one of the few politicians who understood the magnitude of the allegation and how to adequately support it, even going beyond the limits of caution – and very much in his bold and provocative style – when he openly endorsed the foundation that Gustavo Bolivar, one of his most controversial supporters, he organized for the youth of the so-called First Line.
But other things gradually came together to give him the chance of a lifetime: the lack of strength and unity of a center that failed to solidify as a team or captivate a constituency for moderation in an age of exalted networks little says and contained anger; the gradual decline of Uribismo and, above all, of a Uribe increasingly challenged by the judiciary; and the defeat of Federico Gutierrez, the traditional political candidate many believed to be his main challenger. The hardest was yet to come, however, when the tide of competition eventually led him to face an outsider whose popularity unexpectedly grew and managed to captivate a large segment of Colombian voters, to the point that he gave up the campaign of 2022 turned into one of the most uncertain, wildest, most interesting and exhausting of the last few decades.
Beating Rodolfo Hernández, the candidate just beaten by Petro but who received the not inconsiderable sum of 10.5 million votes, seemed no easy task. The former mayor of Bucaramanga – who has “sold out” as a pro-corruption advocate despite facing corruption charges – embodies a Trump-style populism that blends rudeness, obscenity, imagery and arrogance with a pragmatic and simplistic approach to social issues and a great ignorance of the country that was about to rule. But it represents many other things that some Colombians admire: on the one hand, the myth of the tireless worker – also promoted by Uribe – the productive one, the saver made “by hand” and that of the entrepreneur who generates work, but also knows how to get rich and live a good life. And also the role model of the chief master who does not shake his pulse in front of his employees; that of the man capable of violently threatening his enemy, saying that the woman would be better off taking care of the children, joking about prostitutes and women who strip their husbands of their clothes; and from the politician who promises – like AMLO – to reduce the state apparatus to a minimum and to save on everything that seems luxurious or unnecessary.
What really made Hernández a formidable rival for Petro, however, was the fact that whoever he was, he was the only hope for those who hate or fear Petro, and there are many: from the most unruly right, consisting of the members of the Democratic Party Center and many conservatives, even many businessmen and landowners and that part of the citizenry that associates it with the guerrillas, with Chávez, with Maduro; and the one who, without fearing him, calls him demagogic, messianic, authoritarian, and bad manager. All these sectors came together to defeat him. But Petro knew how to appeal to whatever it was. He slowly decaffeinated his speech, moving it toward a more moderate, less intimidating one, and filling it with slogans that, despite their high pitch, seduce, like that of the world power of life or the politics of love. Knowing the Catholicism of the Colombians, he visited the Pope and in his first tweet as President he put the words “God and people” together with a capital letter. His advisors advised him to dress more formally, “executively,” and even his daughter Sofía scored points for her intelligence and beauty. And in terms of alliances, he accepted whatever it was. While his rival rejected them all – in a false theatrical gesture of independence – he accepted everyone from career politicians of dubious reliability to an anti-abortion pastor. At one point he even talked – Seeing is Bending – about joining Uribe. But his great achievement was – after some hesitation, it must be said – the nomination of Francia Márquez as vice-president after winning a big vote within the Historic Pact. France, a charismatic and courageous Afro woman but above all a true symbol of change, proof that this country has made some progress in conquering equal opportunities was definitive for her arrival as President.
Two other factors helped him achieve the presidency: Faced with the prospect of a dangerously unpredictable candidate like Hernández coming to govern Colombia, many notable public figures—politicians, journalists, intellectuals, and scientists—supported his candidacy . And that, like Uribe, the enthusiasm of his followers has given him a “Teflon”, which means that no scandal from his environment will belittle his reputation. Neither the ones that once linked him to a Tula full of bills, nor the ones his brother aroused when he went to jail to talk about social forgiveness with corrupt politicians, nor those that his most delusional or impractical propositions like the have caused a train that unites two extremes of the country.
Those who try to scare Petro by claiming he is a guerrilla fighter are wrong. On the contrary, in a country that desperately needs peace, where the accords face so much opposition and are being sabotaged day in and day out, it’s a celebration that a demobilized man has come to power. Gustavo Petro has proved a courageous man during his many years as Senator, making important allegations about the relationship between paramilitarism and politics and about extrajudicial executions by members of the army. The fear can come from somewhere else. That in spite of his intelligence, his political ability and his social conscience he strikes that quarrelsome tone in his government, sometimes inciting hatred and resentment that has so often been seen, kindling fire where there is dry wood. Or that, stubborn and impulsive as he is, he insists on some of his delusional projects despite his coldness and the economy derails. In his speech – a bit bombastic and vague in my opinion – he spoke of the unification of a Colombia that is still severely divided. Hopefully it doesn’t stay with the promise.
Subscribe here to the EL PAÍS newsletter on Colombia and receive all the important information about current events in the country.