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Colombia Elections Live Results: Petro is elected the first leftist President


Credit…Federico Rios for The New York Times

For the first time, Colombia will have a leftist president.

Gustavo PetroA former rebel and a longtime senator committed to transforming the country’s economic system won Sunday’s election, according to preliminary results, bringing the nation third largest country in Latin America on a whole new path.

Mr. Petro received more than 50 percent of the vote, with more than 99 percent counted on Sunday night. His opponent, Rodolfo Hernandeza construction magnate who has energized the country with a horrifying anti-corruption background is just over 47%.

Immediately after the vote, Mr. Hernández gave in to Mr. Petro.

“Colombians, today the majority of citizens have chosen another candidate,” he told supporters in Bucaramanga. “As I said on the campaign trail, I accept the outcome of this election.”

Just over 58 percent of Colombia’s 39 million voters voted, according to official figures.

Mr. Petro’s victory reflects widespread discontent in Colombia, a country of 50 million people, with growing poverty and inequality and widespread discontent over a lack of opportunity, problems. sent hundreds of thousands of people to protest in the streets last year.

“The whole country is begging for change, and it’s completely clear,” said Fernando Posada, a Colombian political scientist.

Victory is more meaningful because of the history of the country. For decades, the government has been battling a brutal leftist insurgency known as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, whose stigma from the conflict makes it difficult for the legitimate left to thrive. .

But the FARC signed a peace agreement with the government in 2016, lowering their arms and opening the space for a broader political discussion.

Mr. Petro used to part of another rebel groupknown as the M-19, demobilized in 1990, and became a political party that helped rewrite the country’s constitution.

Both Mr. Petro and Mr. Hernández defeated Federico Gutiérrez, a former big city mayor favored by conservatives, in the first round of voting on May 29, prompting them to vote.

Both men identify themselves as anti-establishment candidates, saying they are running against a political class that has controlled the country for generations.

Among the factors that most distinguish them is the way they see the roots of the country’s problems.

Mr. Petro believes that the economic system has broken down, relying too much on oil exports and the illegal and thriving cocaine business, which he says has made the rich richer and the poor poorer. should be poorer. He is calling for a halt to all new oil exploration, to develop other industries and expand social programs, and to impose higher taxes on the rich.

“What we have today is the result of what I call ‘model exhaustion,'” Mr. Petro said in an interview, referring to the current economic system. “The end result is a brutal poverty.”

However, his ambitious economic plan has raised concerns. A former finance minister Is called its energy plan “economic suicide.”

Mr. Petro will take office in August and will face pressing problems with global consequences: Lack of opportunity and resurgence. violence, has spurred record numbers of Colombians emigrating to the United States in recent months; high levels of deforestation in the Colombian Amazon, an important buffer against climate change; and growing threats to democracy, part of a trend around the region.

He will face a deeply polarized society, where polls show a growing distrust of most major institutions.

Mr. Petro could also reshape Colombia’s relationship with the United States.

For decades, Colombia has been Washington’s strongest ally in Latin America, a cornerstone of its security policy in the region. During his election campaign, Mr. Petro promised to reassess that relationship, including important cooperation on drugs, Venezuela and trade.

In the interview, Mr. Petro said his relationship with the United States will focus on tackling climate change together, especially stopping the rapid erosion of the Amazon forest.

“There is a point of dialogue there,” he said. “Because saving the Amazon rainforest involves some tools, some programs, that don’t exist today, at least not related to the United States.”

Megan Janetsky contributed reporting from Bucaramanga, Colombia, Sofía Villamil and Genevieve Glatsky contributed reporting from Bogotá.





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