Despite the election euphoria, Petro has a thin mandate and is viewed with suspicion by many
e spent 12 years of his youth in the ranks of an urban guerrilla group, taking the alias of a revolutionary general from Gabriel García Márquez’s
. Later, he would serve as a progressive mayor of Bogotá, Colombia’s capital, and as a senator. He ran for president unsuccessfully twice, unable to overcome the conservative wall erected nearly two centuries ago around the Colombian presidency., making history as the first leftwing head of state of the South American country.
“We are not going to betray the electorate that has shouted at history,” said Petro in a triumphant victory speech in Bogotá on Sunday night to rapturous applause. “It is that starting todayPetro’s journey from the ranks of the M-19 guerrilla movement to the presidential palace in Bogotá also included an arrest for possession of weapons when he was younger. He has also said he survived torture.
As mayor of Bogotá he accrued a reputation for high-handedness and a pugnacious attitude towards his critics, while also implementing a harm reduction programme for the city’s homeless, as well as attempting to reform rubbish management.
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