First change: 05/22/2022 – 21:00
Medellín (Colombia) (AFP) – Thousands turned out to hear a man wearing glasses, a bulletproof vest and shields promise an era of change without revenge. On his way to becoming perhaps Colombia’s first left-wing ruler, Gustavo Petro seeks to assuage the fear he is fomenting in a right-wing fort.
A week before the election that could bring him victory, Petro, 62 years old and favorite in all the polls, arrives behind a platform in an armored vehicle. As soon as he dismounts, a Praetorian guard closes around him. His security has recently been tightened as his team suspected they intended to kill him.
The viral photo of Petro at another rally, surrounded by armored shields through which he could barely see his head, recalled 20th-century electoral violence when five presidential candidates were assassinated: three leftists, one of them a former guerrilla-like Petro and two liberals.
Petro believes he can win on May 29, although other polls suggest he has to contest a vote on June 19 for which he is also a favorite.
Smiling, the senator climbs a ladder and meets a stream of people who have been waiting for him for hours in the rain on Carabobo Avenue in Medellín, Colombia’s second traditionally leftist city, and who share the credo: God, family and property.
It is also the birthplace of his nemesis, former President Álvaro Uribe (2002-2010) and former Mayor Federico Gutiérrez, his likely right-wing opponent in a possible second round.
Petro, plaid shirt, casual gray pants, fresh face, picks up the microphone. He strings together idea after idea, unperturbed by the speeches that favor his victory in the first round. During 53 minutes of fiery speech he questions the “oligarchs”, “thieves” and “exclusive” governments. It’s been 200 years that “40 families” have “passed down” power from father to son, he claims.
Supporters of Colombian presidential candidate Gustavo Petro attend a campaign rally in Medellin May 20, 2022 JOAQUIN SARMIENTO AFP
In a city still martyred in the shadow of Pablo Escobar, the dejected cocaine lord, Petro likens the illicit drug trade to the “toxic” economies of coal and oil, which he will halt exploration of before the climate emergency to make way for clean energy close.
All his projects (the “expansion” of agriculture and industry, taxing the richest, financing the economy with flexible credit, etc.) expect collapse and not a little resistance. Nothing, he insists, “under his rule will remain as it was.”
The public cheers him, but the candidate, who promises nothing more than “to change the history of Colombia”, offers his first olive branch: “We will not take revenge, we will not do what they did to us, we will not persecute your families”.
– fears and illusions –
His enthusiasts include university students who resent the police repression a year ago, when social discontent erupted amid the pandemic. The UN documented 46 dead, 28 of them allegedly at the hands of security forces.
There are also black and indigenous people who have come from far away, unemployed and retired. They are an intergenerational crowd who, according to their leader, drop the word “change” every two sentences.
“The reforms will be necessary, Colombia needs a break from all the traditional politics that has ruled all his life,” says Vanesa Muñoz, 23, an architecture student who says she is “outraged” by the government’s response to the demonstrations . massive protests against the government of Iván Duque.
Supporters of Colombian presidential candidate Gustavo Petro attend a campaign rally in Medellin May 20, 2022 JOAQUIN SARMIENTO AFP
At another point in the rally, Lizardo Cuñapa, a 21-year-old indigenous man, assures that he will be going to the polls in support of Petro for the first time because he has “negotiated with the communities” to give them “housing and education”.
Petro has visited 100 public spaces since August, but Medellín’s is one of the most challenging. Here he lost in 2018 by almost 500,000 votes to the Uribe-sponsored Duque. The image of “Fico” Gutiérrez dominates the electoral landscape today.
It’s common to hear traders and shippers say that the Petro is fueling “class hatred”. They fear his “expropriations” – which the Left has sworn before a notary – will bring the economy to a halt – but most importantly, they don’t forgive him for his past as a guerrilla member of the M-19 movement in which he spent 12 years long a combatant before signing the peace in 1990.
Supporters of Colombian presidential candidate Gustavo Petro attend a campaign rally in Medellin May 20, 2022 JOAQUIN SARMIENTO AFP
Away from their ears, Petro instead capitalizes on the government’s unpopularity and the downfall of Uribe (2002-2010), who was the subject of a criminal investigation and whom he ironically refers to as “the accused” in his speech.
However, he leaves a new olive branch before leaving the stage: Anyone “who voted for Uribe this century or for whom Uribe said (…) will not be persecuted by us. They will be respected in their goods, in their lives, in their dignity”.
© 2022 AFP