Election in Colombia: New President Petro addresses the people

Created: 06/20/2022, 11:56 am

By: Sandra Kathe, Kim Hornickel, Lucas Maier

Gustavo Petro emerged as the narrow winner from the runoff election in Colombia.

For the first time in the history of the rather conservative country, a leftist moves into the presidential palace.

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In a first speech after announcing his narrow election victory in Colombia, President-elect Gustavo Petro promised the Colombians a turning point: "Colombia is changing today," said Petro in front of supporters in the capital Bogotá.

He promised "a policy of love, understanding and dialogue".

The main thing is to “leave hatred behind”.

The presidential election showed that there are "two Colombias" with similar voting shares.

"We want Colombia to be a Colombia, for all its diversity," Petro said.

Petro will be inaugurated as Colombia's new president on August 7th.

Several left-wing leaders from Latin America congratulated Petro after his election.

Venezuela's head of state Nicolás Maduro, for example, announced "new times" for the "friendly country".

Mexico's President Andrés Manuel López Obrador spoke of a "historic triumph" for Petros.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken also congratulated "the Colombian people" on Twitter for "having their voices heard in free and fair presidential elections".

Blinken wrote to Petro that they look forward to continuing their "strong partnership" with him and working together "to build two more democratic and just Americas."

From August 7th, the new heads of state of Colombia: Gustavo Petro and Vice President Francia Márquez (right).

© Daniel Munoz/AFP

Former outsider in elections in Colombia: Gustavo Petro becomes the new president

Update June 20, 2022, 4:30 a.m.:

Gustavo Petro is the first left-wing politician to become President of Colombia.

According to the Colombian elections authorities, after the runoff election on Sunday, Petro is unassailable in the lead after counting almost all the votes.

Accordingly, the senator received 50.47 percent of the votes.

His opponent, right-wing millionaire Rodolfo Hernández, got 47.27 percent.

The 62-year-old Petro thus secured around 700,000 more votes than the 77-year-old Hernández.

After turning his back on armed struggle, the former guerrilla fighter Petro was a diplomat in Belgium and mayor of the capital Bogotá, among other things.

He is aiming for far-reaching reforms, including taxes for the wealthy, an emergency program against hunger and the promotion of renewable energies.

Gustavo Petro and his wife Veronica Alcocer (r) celebrate in front of their supporters.

© Fernando Vergara/dpa

Petro described the result in the online service Twitter as "the first victory of the people" in Colombia.

It is "a holiday for the people", joy fills the "heart of the fatherland".

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Presidential election in Colombia: Candidates and President Duque cast votes

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In addition to the two runoff candidates in the presidential election in Colombia, the current office holder Iván Duque also cast his vote on the morning of the election day.

According to a report in the newspaper El Espectador, the 45-year-old was one of the first to vote in the capital Bogotá and emphasized that on this day all people in Colombia "without fear, without intimidation, without prejudice, without bias" choose the next Colombian president could.

The left-wing presidential candidate and former mayor of Bogotá Gustavo Petro also voted early in the morning in the Colombian capital.

His opponent, Rodolfo Hernández, voted in his hometown of Bucaramanga.

As the Colombian daily newspaper reports, both candidates received a call from the election officer in the morning and were told to accept the official election result - regardless of the outcome.

Presidential Election Colombia: Polling stations are open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m

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The polling stations will open in a few minutes on the day of the second round of the presidential elections in Colombia.

From 8 a.m. local time (3 p.m. CEST), the Colombians can then cast their votes for the successor to the incumbent President Iván Duque.

The left-wing ex-guerrilla Gustavo Petro for the progressive alliance Pacto Histórico and the right-wing populist and building contractor Rodolfo Hernández from the so-called “League of Governors against Corruption” stand in the runoff.

Both candidates were considered outsiders at the start of the election campaign.

Polling stations in Colombia close at 4 p.m. local time.

For several days in the run-up to the election, armed military and police forces have been patrolling the South American country, which has had an emotionally charged election campaign behind it.

In addition to heated discussions on social media, death threats were repeatedly made against the candidates.

Update from Sunday, June 19, 11:30 a.m.:

The presidential candidate for the progressive alliance Pacto Histórico, Gustavo Petro, has expressed concern about possible manipulation of the election software in favor of his opponent, the entrepreneur Rodolfo Hernández, reports the news site amerika21.

The reason he gave was that Thomas Greg & Sons' company Disproel, which sells the software for the pre-counting of the votes, has not granted access to the source code.

The argument: It is private property.

Runoff election in Colombia: Leaked video causes excitement

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The day before the second round of the presidential election in Colombia, an apparently leaked video caused a stir in the South American country, in which simulated election results predicted a narrow victory for right-wing populist Rodolfo Hernández.

This is reported by the Colombian newspaper El Espectador.

Accordingly, the video first appeared on social networks and was shared en masse on Saturday (June 18).

The left-wing presidential candidate Gustavo Petro also called for immediate clarification via his Twitter channel.

The Colombian government agency then spoke up and tweeted that it believed the video was fake.

The authority made it clear that no election results would be simulated by official bodies and that information on election results would only be available after the polling stations had closed.

That is why all citizens are called upon to check the sources of their information and to only trust official sources for information on election results instead of being misinformed.

However, the head of the National Electoral Council (CNE), Luis Guillermo Pérez, acknowledged that it could be a test run for the computer program for the announcement of the election results on Sunday.

Colombia election: is hopeful Petro looking forward too soon?

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Although an election victory for the left-wing presidential candidate Gustavo Petro was long considered unlikely, the former guerrilla rebel is optimistic about his upcoming victory in the presidential election after his superior result in the first round of the election.

On Friday (June 17), Petro met with people from the Colombian economy, politics and the social sector to set an example for the possible political direction of the next four years.

With the meeting, Petro wants to signal that he plans to bring his divided country closer together again.

This is reported by the Colombian newspaper El Espectador.

It is about showing people with different positions that there is often little that separates them and that one can create a common unity out of diversity.

The future of Colombia is pluralistic, colorful and shaped by a fresh climate.

According to reports, Petro wants to start planning the government's agenda with the next meeting on Tuesday – provided that he actually wins the forthcoming runoff election on Sunday.

Master plans in the run-up to the Colombian elections: Both candidates are planning cuts in drug policy

Update from Saturday, June 18, 9:55 a.m .:

Not only the presidential candidate Rodolfo Hernández advertises in the election campaign in Colombia with a "master plan" to end drug trafficking.

In addition to Hernández, the former founding member of the left-wing political guerrilla "M-19", Gustavo Petro, is up for election, as vice writes.

“The drug war is fought with capitalism.

It's not with lead or with more violence," said the left-wing politician.

An export of cannabis to the US and Europe should bring an end to the cocaine trade, if the ex-guerrilla has his way.

In addition, the fields on which coca is currently growing will continue to be cultivated through the cultivation of cannabis.

Whoever gets more than 50 percent of the votes on Sunday (June 19) will become the new president of Colombia.

Should it be Gustavo Petro, it would be the country's first left-wing president, as vice reports.

Election campaign in Colombia: free drugs for everyone in the fight against the cartels

Update, 7.45 p.m .:

The presidential candidate in Colombia Rodolfo Hernández has caused a stir with his proposal to hand out drugs to addicts.

With this, Hernández wants to end the violence associated with drug trafficking, as reported by the news portal vice.

“If we make drugs freely available to drug addicts, be it intravenously, orally, then the demand is gone.

Nobody buys anymore," he said, according to the vice.

Hernández wants to end the power of the cartels.

"If they don't buy drugs because we give them to them, the sale is over and the drugs are over."

Drug trafficking is a key issue during the presidential election.

Colombia is the largest cocaine producer in the world.

Powerful drug dealers organize their sales out of the country.

The upcoming presidential election could also point the way for the drug market in Colombia.

On June 19, Colombians will vote again after none of the candidates could clear the 50 hurdle.

Colombia: Victory of the left-wing candidate team in the first ballot

First report from Friday, June 17, 5:20 p.m.:

Bogotá – Colombia elects Iván Duque’s successor and may experience political change.

Because Gustavo Petro, who led in the first ballot, is not only clearly to the left of the country's last governments, he would also be the first ex-guerrilla in office.

The result of the first ballot at the end of May, in which Petro got the most votes with around 40 percent, also showed that his chances of realizing the promise of "real change" are not bad at all.

28 percent voted for his opponent, right-wing populist Rodolfo Hernández.

The election polls are now pointing to a head-to-head race between two candidates who could hardly be more different, and both were considered surprise candidates in their own way.

Neither are newcomers to the political business: Petro, who studied economics after his assignment with the left-wing guerrilla rebel group M-19, has been a diplomat in Belgium and mayor of Bogotá in the course of his career, while the rich tree entrepreneur Hernández has been the mayor of the city for several years City of Bucaramanga in the north of the country.

Colombia elections on Sunday: who will be the new president?

The fact that things are getting tight again after the large lead in the first ballot on May 29 is mainly due to the election recommendation of the third-placed right-wing conservative presidential candidate Federico Gutiérrez, who called on the 24 percent of those eligible to vote who had voted for him, now Hernández to choose.

However, the younger generation in particular is loudly supporting Petro, also because of his running mate Francia Márquez, a 40-year-old black woman who became politically active as a civil rights and environmental activist.

As a candidate, Petro has promised to strengthen the state's influence on the economy and to distribute profits from resource extraction more fairly.

His election platform is directed against the country's traditional elite.

He also wants to fight poverty and campaign for more climate protection.

He promises a turning point for the country, which has been struggling with poverty, violence and drug cartels for many years.

Runoff election for president in Colombia: Petro against Hernández

Hernández, on the other hand, embodies Colombia's traditional elite like no other and flirts with the often obvious comparison with the ousted US President Donald Trump.

Like Trump, the 77-year-old multimillion-dollar contractor Hernández railed against an elite to which he himself belongs according to other criteria, and has already made a name for himself with a number of scandals.

In 2018, for example, he slapped a city councilman in his capacity as mayor for accusing Hernández's son of corruption.

A few years ago he made headlines by saying he admired the "German thinker Adolf Hitler" and then declared that he had confused the Nazi dictator with the physics genius Albert Einstein.

His most important topic: the fight against corruption in Colombia's ruling political and economic elite.

However, his exact plans for a presidency remain vague, and corruption proceedings are currently underway against him himself because as mayor he is said to have favored a company connected to one of his sons.

Hernández's ideas for his own political decisions range from the closure of Colombian embassies abroad to pay off student loans to the right for all Colombians to go to the sea at least once in their life.

As the first official act, he announced that he would resume relations with neighboring Venezuela, but at the same time he threatened to deport hundreds of thousands of migrants.

Colombia elects a new president: Left versus right-wing populist

As in many other countries around the world, the timing of the election in Colombia comes at a deeply divided country, with many people supporting both opponents as passionately as they oppose the other.

Petro's opponents warn that he would turn Colombia into a "socialist dictatorship like Venezuela." Many young people in particular despise Hernández for his political appearance and misogynist and sexist insults, which became a hallmark of his election campaign.

(kh/ska with AFP/dpa)