Colombia turns left

Sunday's elections gave an unprecedented result in the history of Colombia by voting for the head of state for a left-wing candidate.

With 50.4% of the votes, the country backed Gustavo Petro, 62, a former M-19 guerrilla, as future president, compared to 47.3% for populist Rodolfo Hernández, 77.

Participation has been the highest in the last 20 years, above 58%: the result certifies the desire for change of a society disenchanted with its politicians and ravaged by poverty and lack of opportunities.

In a country where conservative elites have roamed as they please for decades, this change will allow Petro, an economist who has ostensibly moderated in recent times, to develop a policy aimed at fulfilling his promise to mitigate social inequalities and synchronize the engines. productive with the fight against climate change.

But the electoral turn is also accompanied by signs that the president-elect should not ignore.

The fundamental one is that he will have to take charge of a seriously fractured society, without a parliamentary majority and having won his opponent by barely 700,000 votes (1.8% of the census).

To overcome this limitation, he will need to close a great pact with the rest of the political forces that allows him to heal the wounds caused by years of war, corruption and immobility.

The message from the electorate has been clear.

Social unrest dominates the Colombian horizon.

Petro is, in part, a product of this ennui, as is his defeated opponent.

The candidacy of Rodolfo Hernández, a sexist politician, unpredictable and charged in a serious case of corruption, has shown in all its crudeness the depth of the rejection of the traditional political class.

It has been of no use to Uribismo, which in the first round skidded with Federico Gutiérrez, to bet on Hernández.

The failure of this strategy has revealed the exhaustion of this sector and its derivatives as a political formula.

It is a lesson that the Latin American right should learn.

As happened in Peru with Keiko Fujimori or in Chile with José Antonio Kast,

Pushed by this continental wind, it is up to Petro to take advantage of the moment, to scare away the specters that still lurk in certain circles of international markets about its objectives and to fulfill its promise of a great national agreement.

His first words as president-elect seemed to be aimed at this end: "It is not a change to take revenge, it is not a change to build more hatred, it is not a change to deepen sectarianism in Colombian society."

A year ago, Colombia was shaken by a violent protest that left dozens of young people dead.

The causes of that earthquake are still alive and, unless progress is made in the pact, there is a danger of another explosion.

It is not an easy task in a country where 39% of the population lives in poverty, where there are still guerrillas and where drug traffickers hold enormous power.

Nor is it something that depends on one man.

To achieve this goal, the concurrence of the main political forces is needed, a general effort that, as in the great moments of Colombian history, brings together the best of society.

That first step, if achieved, will define Petro's presidency and the country's future.