REPORT
Colombia: the left at the gates of power?
Audio 04:23
Activists of left-wing candidate Gustavo Petro at a poster-pasting party this week in Cali in southwestern Colombia.
© RFI/Stefanie Schüler
Text by: Stefanie Schüler Follow
4 mins
This Sunday, May 29, Colombia chooses a new president.
And for the first time in the country's history, a left-wing candidate could well win the election.
At 62, Gustavo Petro, a former guerrilla and veteran of Colombian politics, is the big favorite in the polls.
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From our special correspondents in Cali
,
Stefanie Schüler
and
Damien Fellous
In Colombia, where corruption, social exclusion and violence still dominate daily life, many voters now want a change in politics.
But they will probably not be numerous enough to allow Gustavo Petro a victory in the first round.
On the last straight line his sympathizers threw all their forces into battle.
►Also read: Colombia: end of the electoral campaign for the candidates a few days before the vote
"
We are in the middle of the evening of sticking up posters and we are distributing the campaign program
," said this left-wing activist.
And what is the reaction of the population to Gustavo Petro's campaign?
“
Very positive!
People honk and applaud as they drive by.
They shout: “
Petro, first round!”
Out of 100 people there is a negative reaction.
The others are all showing their support for our presence here
,” she continues.
If the former senator and former mayor of Bogota, Gustavo Petro, is so popular in Cali, it is because the city was the bastion of social protest, the "
paro
" which last spring shook the whole of Colombia and which was violently repressed by the outgoing government.
“
We were hungry.
The pandemic and confinement have worsened unemployment and the lack of food for already disadvantaged populations.
It blew up the community.
But with the “paro” people have become aware that they have rights which they can demand respect.
Today, this struggle will therefore be seen at the polls.
Our resistance will translate into votes
”, testifies, on condition of anonymity, this young woman who participated in the uprising.
“
We need a policy change
”
In Colombia, more than half of the population lives on less than 3 euros a day, and a majority of Colombians work in the informal sector.
Ivan Duque, the outgoing conservative president, has
not implemented the peace agreements
signed in 2016 between the Farc guerrillas and the Colombian state.
Violence is back, in the city as well as in rural areas.
In this context, the progressive ideas of Gustavo Petro seduce, including in the ranks of Colombian intellectuals and the middle class.
"
For me, Petro represents more jobs, better access to healthcare, the possibility for all young people to study with free universities, a better retirement for the elderly
," says Samara, a woman.
“
Colombia has everything you need for a better life.
But we are the worst in everything: in terms of violence, poverty, drug trafficking.
We need a change of policy if we don't want to continue like this
”, continues his mother.
To reduce social inequalities, put an end to endemic violence and protect the environment, the favorite in the polls promises a change in the economic model: in the long term, Gustavo Petro wants to reduce oil exploitation, which nevertheless represents more than half of exports. Colombian, in favor of an economy based on agriculture and tourism.
His campaign promises are numerous, but the program does not detail the means to achieve them.
Some center voters are hesitant to give their vote to the left-wing candidate.
Yet it is these centrist voices that Gustavo Petro needs to win the presidential election.
Right-wing hate campaign
For their part, Gustavo Petro activists are worried about the hate campaign, initiated by the Colombian right on social networks.
Gustavo Petro is compared to Stalin, Chavez and Castro.
His running mate, Afro-Colombian
Francia Marquez
in King Kong.
“
In other countries, there is an alternation of power.
Not in Colombia.
Here we have 200 years of right-wing hegemony.
And she won't give up the power so easily
“, worries Sonia, a pro-Petro activist.
“
The right occupies the positions in all the institutions.
For Petro, it will therefore be very difficult to apply its policy.
The change we need will take years
,” says David, another activist.
According to the latest polls, Gustavo Petro would obtain around 40% of the votes in the ballot this Sunday.
A second round therefore seems likely: on June 19, it would oppose the left-wing candidate either to Federico Gutierrez, a right-wing candidate, or to Rodolfo Hernandez, an independent populist candidate.
►Also read: Colombia: conservatives worried about the possible victory of the left
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