Gustavo Petro will be the new President of Colombia. The leftist leader, who entered the electoral contest on behalf of the historic treaty, will take office as the first president of the Colombian people, defeating engineer Rodolfo Hernández in an election on August 7.
Thus, the prediction of the latest Yanhas survey came true, Which put Petro in first place with 45% of the vote, compared to 35% for Rodolfo Hernández.
Political life away from the presidency
Petro began his political career in the midst of the country’s violence as part of the M-19 guerrilla, first as a Zipaquira counselor in the early 1980s and later in 1984 while serving as an active terrorist. as terrorist. He will be sentenced to 18 months in prison “by decision of the colonel of the army”.
After signing peace with the national government, He was a representative of the Chamber of the Democratic Alliance M-19 party for the period 1990–1994. At the end of this legislature, Petro was added to the government of Ernesto Samper as Diplomatic Attache for Human Rights at the Colombian Embassy in Belgium, a position he left in 1996 due to differences with this administration.
He then returned to Colombia to choose a seat in the House of Representatives, this time for Bogotá, with the support of the Via Alterna movement. He held that post for two assemblies (1998–2006).
At the end of its passage through the lower house, He knew it was time to step into the Senate, where he reached for the term 2006–2010 in support of Polo Democratico.
the third time was the charm
After 12 years of trying to reach the Presidency, Petro finally achieved his goal. The now elected president had already participated in two other presidential campaigns, 2010 was the first time he was selected for a position at the Casa di Narino.
On that occasion, the politician finished fourth in the election with a total of 1,329,512 votes, i.e. 10.13% of the vote. In third place with 1.4 million votes was former Vice President Germán Vargas Leras. That year, the second round was disputed between Juan Manuel Santos, who had come in as the Uribe candidate, and Antanas Mocas, the former mayor of Bogota, who had previously won the election.
Eight years later (2018), Petro is back ring, this time much more experienced in the public sector, as he came to Bogota’s mayor’s office between 2012 and 2015 with a job developed behind his back. on this occasion, Petro garnered nearly 5 million votes allowing him to go through to the second round with Democratic Center candidate Ivan Duque (7.5 million).
Finally, in this second election, Duque surpassed his left-wing rival by more than two million votes (10.3 million and 8 million, respectively), thus the man chosen by Colombians to lead him between 2018 and 2022. became; For his part, Petro, once again, reached the Congress of the Republic, as a senator, thanks to the so-called Law of Opposition.
Thus, Colombian Congressman Humana had another four years to reconsider his political views and launch a new campaign practically as soon as the 2018 campaign ends; Tactics that worked perfectly for him, and he is today as the character who will replace, well, the man who defeated him in 2018 as Colombia’s new president.
It should be remembered that, according to the words given by Petro himself, if he did not win, this would be the last presidential campaign he would have participated in. “I have brought the forces of society to the point where power was disputed, by my thoughts, by my struggle. As the popular saying goes, we intimidate those in power, but if, as has happened many times in history, this cannot be done, then it will depend on other people, for other generations,” The candidate said a few weeks ago.
Petro strike?
Now, although many experts agree that the Petro campaign has been in office for the same four years as Ivan Duque, the truth is that it was the last year that gave Petrism the greatest strength in Colombia, especially after the national strike.
The social struggle of Colombians against Ivan Duque in 2021, which began with the controversial tax reform proposed by former finance minister, Alberto Carrascilla, affected not only the national government, but also the political ideology it represented. Is: Eurybism.
In fact, the impact of the national strike on this political group is such that its natural leader, former President lvaro Uribe, also ended 2021 with the lowest favorability rate since 1996: 19%, according to a survey by Invmer Poll. However, in the midst of the strike, Uribe’s adversity was the most important fact in political culture: 73% of Colombians had an unfavorable image of the former senator in May 2021.
However, just as the strike left losers politically, it also left winners with Gustavo Petro and Petrismo as great beneficiaries of last year’s social upheaval.
Petro was able to successfully quell the outrage of Colombians, who did manage to attract the attention of hundreds of people who, tired of the current policies, saw an alternative to a change in the ideology of this candidate in the country.
This was demonstrated by citizens during the legislative elections on 13 March, with the historic treaty being regarded as the great surprise of the day. At the end of the official count of the registry, The group led by Petro was left with 19 of the 102 seats established in the Senate and 25 of the 165 seats in the House of Representatives.
Of course, those concerned with Gustavo Petro hoped that these results could be replicated in presidential elections; In the end, Petrista’s wish became a reality.
‘Picota Pact’ and ‘Petrovideo’
However, Petro’s political plan was not entirely accurate, as there were months, even weeks, in the middle of the campaign before the election campaign. The success of the candidate in the country exposed two major controversies: the so-called ‘social pardon’ and ‘petrovideo’.
The first issue was highlighted last April, when Colombia became aware of meetings held by members of the historic treaty at La Picotta Prison in Bogota, in which some of the country’s most popular characters of corruption were convicted. .
One of them was former Senator Ivan Moreno, who is currently in prison in Bogotá for renting a carousel. The first to contact Moreno was Gustavo Petro’s brother Juan Fernando Petro, who assured that he had gone to prison to talk with the politician and other prisoners about the so-called “social pardon”.
“The whole conversation with each of them, especially what to do with prison policy, goes with the problem of humanization of prisons and human rights (…) It was part of the conversation, but the essential issues were worked out. When I spoke with these prisoners the problem of humanization of prisons and what social pardon meant. Certainly, this is a topic that interests them because the same two words mean a kind of ‘second chance’. is,” said Juan Fernando in conversation WEEK. in VickyJust after this scam was exposed.
However, the explanations were not enough for opponents of petrism in Colombia, who defined the alleged “social pardon” as a matter of vote buying in the country’s prisons.
“What Gustavo Petro is doing is trying to buy out the political nexus of convicted criminals (…). In the historical treaty, all the bad people came together, who took advantage of politics and did business.On this subject were the words of Maria Fernanda Cabal, which she called ‘The Pylori Pact’.
Now, after “generalizing” this situation due to Patrismo’s attempt to dissociate himself from the actions of Juan Fernando Petro, who at all times stated that his activities had nothing to do with the historical treaty, a new controversy arose. Which, even more forcefully, sparked the outrage and disapproval of hundreds of Colombians for Petro’s campaign: ‘Petrovideo’.
Semana was the first media outlet to learn of a series of recordings of virtual meetings that revealed all of the strategies for the historic treaty to remain in power the way it was necessary to do so.
In these videos, whose main protagonist was Roy Barreras, The Historical Pact talks about the ways in which he will try to defeat other opponents in the campaign, including Sergio Fajardo, Alejandro Gaviria, and former squad for Colombia candidate Federico Gutierrez.
In fact, the latter was the one who received most of the Patrismo ‘dirty battle’, with Sebastián Camilo Guanaumén Parra, the leader of the Petro campaign’s communications team, at the head of the plan.
“We have to start attacking Fico, some rumors and some elements that make us work against Fico like they do us. Defending ourselves alone in this campaign is not enough”, Guanumean explained in a section.
He also assured that “it will be important to start generating content that we can attack FICO through different networks and different WhatsApp channels. How are we going to attack this? Because of his ties to drug traffickers, because of his poor management in the mayor’s office. With the network of power behind it. Fico should be sold as a puppet,
On the other hand, fragments of an conceived plan against Rodolfo Hernández were also found, in addition to talking about the waste management case in Bucaramanga, known as Vitalogic, and for which the engineer is accused. , he also mentioned the case of his daughter Juliana, kidnapped and disappeared by ELN, assuring in many cases that this is a “lie”.
Thus, there are many statements that question the “moral line” used by the historical treaty during its campaign, in which, although “the end justified the means”, This was not enough to end Petro’s popularity and eventually reach the Presidency of Colombia.
