Ex-rebel looking to defy odds in presidential race
ZIPAQUIRA, COLOMBIA » Gustavo Petro began his long ascent to the cusp of Colombia’s presidency in this self-built barrio named after South American independence hero Simon Bolivar.
In 1983, equipped with little more than a shovel and a surplus of revolutionary ideals, the thenclandestine militant led some 400 squatter families in a months-long battle with local authorities to secure a plot of land to build their ramshackle homes here in Zipaquira, a city north of Bogota. Their rallying cry was: “A roof and a dignified life.”
Thirty five years later, the founders of the “Bolivar 83” barrio still living in the slum celebrate Petro’s rise as their own. The leftist candidate will face off against conservative Ivan Duque today in Colombia’s presidential runoff election.
“He taught us to call each other comrades, not neighbors,” remembers Ana Miriam Chitiva, pointing to photos hung on her home’s wall of the barrio’s early days, when the bespectacled, introverted Petro would help her lug concrete pipes and carve out dirt roads from the rocky, forested hillside.
The same crusading spirit has accompanied Petro throughout his fourdecade political ascent. He’s gone from fearless lawmaker who tormented Colombia’s political class, to the renegade mayor of Bogota who took on powerful private interests and now a surprise, surging finalist in the country’s first presidential election since the signing of a historic peace accord.
The two-man race between Petro and Duque has tightened in the final stretch, with one poll indicating Petro had climbed to within 6 points of his conservative rival. In the first round of voting three weeks ago, Duque topped Petro by more than 14 points.
Whoever is elected will lead Colombia at a crucial juncture. The country is in the early stages of implementing an accord with leftist rebels to end Latin America’s longest running conflict. But cocaine production has soared in areas vacated by the rebels, threatening to undo security gains and testing traditionally close relations with the U.S.