Colombia elects first leftist president in it's history

In much the same way that the massive protests in Chile in 2019, that the government tried unsuccessfully to put down with violence, led to a leftist being elected president, the massive protests in Colombia in 2021, that the government tried unsuccessfully to put down with violence, has led to a leftist being elected president.

(Reuters) - Leftist Gustavo Petro, a former member of the M-19 guerrilla movement who has vowed profound social and economic change, won Colombia's presidency on Sunday, the first progressive to do so in the country's history.

Petro beat construction magnate Rodolfo Hernandez with an unexpectedly wide margin of some 719,975 votes. The two had been technically tied in polling ahead of the vote.

Petro, a former mayor of capital Bogota and current senator, has pledged to fight inequality with free university education, pension reforms and high taxes on unproductive land. He won 50.5% to Hernandez's 47.3%.
Petro's proposals - especially a ban on new oil projects - have startled some investors, though he has promised to respect current contracts.

Petro has promised to fully implement a 2016 peace deal with FARC rebels. The current right-wing government has very deliberately violated this peace deal in order to maintain control through violence.
Hernandez ran on an anti-corruption platform, but that was undermined by the fact that he was under an investigation over allegations he intervened in a trash management tender to benefit a company his son lobbied for.

Petro's running mate Francia Marquez, a single mother and former housekeeper, will be the country's first Afro-Colombian woman vice-president

Every major country from Mexico to Antarctica, except for Brazil, has now elected a center-left to leftist government. Plus, Brazil will have a presidential election in October, and center-leftist Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has been leading the polls by a landslide margin for more than a year.
Only mid-sized countries like Uruguay, Paraguay, and Ecuador have right-wing governments now.

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In more good news for the left, although not nearly as definitive, a leftist coalition in France has denied neoliberal President Macron from winning a majority in the National Assembly.

French President Emmanuel Macron and his allies on Sunday lost their absolute majority in the National Assembly and with it control of the reform agenda, a crushing outcome for the newly re-elected president.

For sure, Macron's centrist Ensemble! alliance were set to end up with the most seats in Sunday's election, followed by the left-wing Nupes bloc headed by the hard left veteran Jean-Luc Melenchon, initial projections showed....
Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire called the outcome a "democratic shock" and said they would reach out to all pro-Europeans to help govern the country.

"The rout of the presidential party is complete and there is no clear majority in sight," Melenchon told cheering supporters.

The media wants to focus on the right-wing Le Pen, but it was the Left that made the biggest gains.
The left had only 60 seats in the last legislature, but will now have at least 150 seats.

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Columbia. The people deserve this.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

thanatokephaloides's picture

(Reuters) - Leftist Gustavo Petro, a former member of the M-19 guerrilla movement who has vowed profound social and economic change, won Colombia's presidency on Sunday, the first progressive to do so in the country's history.

[video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRhjWdr-LAA]

Smile

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"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

@thanatokephaloides n/t

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

The Liberal Moonbat's picture

Liberty didn't die - she just flew south for the Winter of our Discontent.

Perhaps I will, too...!

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In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.

Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!

I appreciate your interest in Colombia and the move left happening in S. America. I only spent 11 days down in Colombia. Peace with FARC is a matter of survival. Lay down the damn guns. While the US might make some deal out of the first Afro-something or other female being their country's VP, the quickest way to get your ass kicked in Columbia is to do or say something racist. That speaks to the Bolivarians finally coming to prominence.
Many educated Colombians I met thought making pals with the US was to their advantage.I told them all, beware.
I hope the drug cartel might lose interest in supplying the US with cocaine. That will be a huge problem for the new guy.
May they live long and prosper.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

beginning with Afghanistan and Iraq, is that it leaves space and oxygen for the peoples of Latin and South America to forming governments that that US would otherwise have subverted before they came into being. It's not a straight-line process. Wins all to often become losses in subsequent elections, but the prior win seems to remain robust enough not to be decimated and continues to consolidate. So far, only the Bolivarian revolution in Venezuela has managed to hold for over two decades. And has also managed to make the US attempts to overthrow their government look ridiculous.

Congratulations to Colombia and hope this time Lula can keep the Yanks out for a very long time.

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From neocon David Frum

Colombia’s outgoing president, the moderate conservative Iván Duque Márquez, was barred from running again by the country’s strict single-term limit. In that four years, he oversaw a record of policy success unmatched in recent South American history. In return, he is leaving office with an approval rating in the low 20s, the worst any president has had in Colombian polling history. The party he belonged to has been wrecked and discredited.

I interviewed Duque on June 2, during a visit he made to Washington, D.C., and found him as baffled as anybody else by Colombia’s turn to extremism.

Where to start? Duque got elected with drug cartel money. He intentionally violated and tried to destroy the Peace accords with the FLM. When people protested his austerity measures, he turned loose the police to maim and kill the protestors.
Yet, it's a mystery.

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