Colombians choose a new president amid general discontent

By ASTRID SUAREZ and REGINA GARCIA CANO

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — In a blow to Colombia’s political class, a leftist former rebel and a populist businessman took the top two places in the country’s presidential election Sunday and headed to a runoff showdown in June.

Leftist Sen. Gustavo Petro led the field of six candidates with just in excess of 40% of the votes, even though unbiased genuine estate tycoon Rodolfo Hernández finished second with more than 28%, election authorities reported Sunday evening.

A candidate required 50% of the total votes to win outright the contest held amid a polarized surroundings and increasing discontent more than escalating inequality and inflation.

No matter who wins June 19, the South American nation extended ruled by conservatives or moderates will see a remarkable change in presidential politics.

Petro has promised to make major adjustments to the economy, including tax reform, and to improve how Colombia fights drug cartels and other armed teams. Hernández, whose location in the runoff contest arrived as a shock, has couple of connections to political functions and guarantees to minimize wasteful governing administration investing and to supply benefits for men and women who report corrupt officers.

Searching at areas exactly where Hernández won in some of the most common heartland departments, “the rejection of the position quo even amid lots of of the most conservative Colombians … definitely does display a disgust with the traditional workings of Colombian politics,” mentioned Adam Isacson, an specialist on Colombia at the Washington Business on Latin The us feel tank.

Petro’s most important rival for most of the marketing campaign was Federico Gutierrez, a previous mayor of Medellin who was viewed as the continuity applicant and ran on a professional-organization, financial expansion system. But Hernández commenced to transfer up strongly in the latest polls heading into the election.

There has been a series of leftist political victories in Latin The us as individuals look for transform at a time of dissatisfaction with the economic condition. Chile, Peru and Honduras elected leftist presidents in 2021, and in Brazil, previous President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is primary the polls for this year’s presidential election. Mexico elected a leftist president in 2018.

“The major issue in the region is the inequality of situations, the work is not nicely paid,” claimed Jenny Bello, who offered espresso close to a long line of voters under a usual cloudy sky in the funds of Bogotá. She had to resort to casual profits soon after months with out operate due to the fact of the pandemic.

This was the next presidential election held considering the fact that the authorities signed in 2016 a peace agreement with the Innovative Armed Forces of Colombia, known as FARC for its initials in Spanish. But the divisive arrangement was not a principal difficulty for the duration of the campaign, which concentrated on poverty, inflation and other difficulties exacerbated by the pandemic.

It is Petro’s 3rd endeavor to turn into president. He was defeated in 2018 by Iván Duque, who was not suitable to seekr re-election.

“What is in dispute today is transform. The political events allied to the federal government of Duque, his political challenge, has been defeated in Colombia,” Petro instructed his supporters as they celebrated at his marketing campaign headquarters in Bogotá. “Colombia’s whole vote launches that concept to the planet: A time period is ending an era is ending.”

A victory for Petro would usher in a new political era in a region that has extended marginalized the remaining thanks to its perceived association with the nation’s armed conflict. He was the moment a rebel with the now-defunct M-19 movement and was granted amnesty after becoming jailed for his involvement with the group.

“The peace accords of 2016 really broke the hyperlink concerning remaining politics and guerrillas/terrorists,” Isacson stated. “I consider individuals quickly recognized they could be incredibly essential of the current method devoid of currently being painted as a guerrilla.”

But in a indicator of the resistance to a leftist governing administration, Gutierrez endorsed Hernández shortly just after he was left out of the runoff.

“Knowing that our place is decisive for the upcoming of Colombia, we have made a final decision … we do not want to get rid of the country,” Gutierrez stated, introducing that he would help Hernández for the reason that he does not want to put Colombia “at danger.”

Petro has promised to make major changes to the economic system, which include a tax reform, as very well as improvements to how Colombia fights drug cartels and other armed teams.

Hernández, the previous mayor of the north-central metropolis of Bucaramanga, surged in recent polls with claims to “clean” the nation of corruption and to donate his salary.

“Now, we enter the next period of time, and these following number of days will be decisive in analyzing the future of the region,” Hernández said in a livestream after early success showed he sophisticated to the runoff. He mentioned he remains firm on his determination to end “corruption as a technique of authorities.”

A Gallup poll carried out earlier this month mentioned 75% of Colombians consider the state is heading in the improper course and only 27% approve of Duque. A poll final year by Gallup uncovered 60% of those people questioned were locating it tricky to get by on their income.

The pandemic set again the country’s anti-poverty endeavours by at least a 10 years. Official figures display that 39% of Colombia’s 51.6 million people lived on considerably less than $89 a thirty day period last 12 months, which has a slight improvement from 42.5% in 2020.

Inflation achieved its optimum degrees in two decades previous month. Duque’s administration reported April’s 9.2% rate was element of a world wide inflationary phenomenon, but the argument did very little to tame discontent above rising meals rates.

“The vote serves to adjust the region and I imagine that this obligation falls a great deal on young people today who want to arrive at criteria that enable us to have a decent daily life,” said Juan David González, 28, who voted for the 2nd time in a presidential election.

In addition to financial problems, Colombia’s subsequent president will also have to confront a intricate security concern and corruption, which is a prime problem of voters.

The Red Cross past yr concluded Colombia attained its maximum level of violence in the previous five many years. Whilst the peace settlement with the FARC has been applied, the territories and drug-trafficking routes that it at the time managed are in dispute amongst other armed groups these kinds of as the National Liberation Military, or ELN, a guerrilla started in the 1960s, FARC dissidents and the Gulf Clan cartel.

Duque’s successor will have to decide irrespective of whether to resume peace talks with the ELN, which he suspended in 2019 after an attack killed far more than 20 people today.

“Corruption in state entities is the principal trouble in the state,” Édgar González said after voting in Bogotá. “… A very big improve is getting put in the country’s politics and if we all exercise the correct we are going to achieve that adjust.”

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Garcia Cano reported from Caracas, Venezuela.