Florida politicians fret over newly elected president of Colombia
TALLAHASSEE — Politicians in the state tried to make it known they support Colombians in Florida, while offering different degrees of concern after the election of leftist Gustavo Petro as president of the South American nation.
Republicans decried the growth of Marxism, as Colombian voters elevated to the presidency a former member of a guerilla group known as M-19. Democrats praised the expression of democratic values, while pointing to concerns about Petro, also is a former mayor of Bogota.
DeSantis on Monday said electing a “former narco-terrorist” will be “disastrous” for Colombia and that the results are “very, very troubling for people that believe in freedom in the Western Hemisphere.”
“We’ve had a great relationship with Colombia as a state, we were all hoping that the outcome would be different,” DeSantis said. “But we’ve got a problem in the Western Hemisphere with Marxism, totalitarianism really spreading. We thought 25 years ago, the Cold War ended all this stuff, and it just keeps rearing its head.”
U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., issued a statement that said the U.S. “now
faces a Colombia unfamiliar to us.”
Petro won a runoff election against Rodolfo Hernandez, a populist business tycoon who has been compared with former President Donald Trump.
Florida Democrats said they respected the voice of the Colombian voters. But they weren’t embracing Petro.
“I am concerned that the newly elected leader, Gustavo Petro, has in the past aligned himself with
the policies of the Castros, Hugo Chavez, and Nicolas Maduro, which have brought so much pain and suffering to Cubans
and Venezuelans,” Florida Democratic Party Chairman Manny Diaz said in a statement.
U.S. Rep. Charlie Crist, a Democratic gubernatorial candidate, said in a statement he wants Colombia’s new head of state to “honor and hold fast to the democratic principles that culminated in (the) vote.”
A statement from Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, who is vying with Crist for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination, said “the president-elect can make good on his promises to build a Colombia that takes full advantage of its diversity to pursue its full potential.”