Colombia’s next leader pledges changes to peace deal with Farc
▶ Departing president Juan Manuel Santos signed contentious accord in 2016
Colombia’s President-elect, Ivan Duque, appealed for unity after winning a run-off election against a former guerrilla whose rise exposed deep divisions over the nation’s peace process.
The conservative protege of a powerful former president, Alvaro Uribe, was elected on Sunday with 54 per cent of the vote.
He finished more than 12 points ahead of Gustavo Petro, although former rebel’s result was the best ever for the left in one of Latin America’s most conservative nations.
When Mr Duque, 42, takes office in August he will be Colombia’s youngest president in more than a century.
In his first remarks as president-elect he pledged to work to heal divisions and govern for all Colombians. He promised to fight against corruption and the surge in cocaine production, which he called a threat to national security.
“This is the opportunity that we have been waiting for – to turn the page on the politics of polarisation, insults and venom,” Mr Duque told supporters on Sunday night, as he was joined by his young family.
The election was the first since departing president Juan Manuel Santos signed the 2016 peace agreement with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as Farc. That divisive accord defined the polls.
Mr Duque’s promise to heal the scars from five decades of conflict will need a quick response.
The rebels who demobilised are struggling to fit into civilian life. And large areas of remote territory remain under the control of violent drug gangs and rebel groups.
Mr Duque, who entered politics in 2014 after being lured back to Colombia from Washington by Mr Uribe, repeated pledges made on the campaign trail to retract benefits in the peace accord for top rebel commanders who were behind atrocities.
He and his running mate, Marta Lucia Ramirez, who will become Colombia’s first female vice president, have promised to make changes in the accord.
Mr Petro, meanwhile, energised young voters and drew millions to town squares with speeches pledging to improve the lives of poor Colombians neglected by the political elite.
His more than eight million votes was remarkable in a country where leftist politicians have long been stigmatised because of the civil conflict.
Mr Petro took his loss in stride, refusing to call it a defeat. In a concession speech that at times sounded celebratory, he challenged Mr Duque to break with his hard-line allies, and Mr Uribe in particular.
He also promised to mobilise his considerable following into an opposition that would fight for social reforms and defend the peace accord.
“Those eight million Colombians are not going to let Colombia return to war,” Mr Petro said to a thunderous applause from supporters, who chanted “Resistance”.
Colombia’s peace process, which ends a conflict that killed more than 250,000 people, is considered to be mainly irreversible.
Most of the more than 7,000 rebels who surrendered their weapons have started new lives as farmers, community leaders and journalists. Last year, they launched a political party and will soon occupy 10 seats in Congress.
But the accord remains contentious and Mr Duque, through constitutional reform or by decree, could proceed with proposals such as not allowing former guerrillas responsible for human rights abuse to take political office.
The current agreement allows most rebels to avoid jail.
Mr Duque, a father of three, became an adviser almost two decades ago to the man he will succeed as president, who was then Colombia’s finance minister. With Mr Uribe’s backing, he was elected to Colombia’s Senate in 2014.
But Mr Duque is dogged by accusations that he will be a puppet for Mr Uribe, who is constitutionally barred from seeking a third term.
Mr Uribe has been blamed after the military killed thousands of civilians who were falsely said to be rebels.